Soul of a Demon
by FireMonkeyDragon
Summary: Suspected of being the reincarnation of a fabled demon that contributed in the near destruction of all the known worlds, Tatsu Yoruno, the adoptive younger brother of Rias Gremory, lives oblivious to his past. However, as memories from his past life return, he is forced to choose between his two identities. Either way, The Heavens Will Rumble. (A Martial Arts Story).
1. Prologue

_**Welcome to 'Soul of a Demon'. This story involves an Original Character therefore some parts of the canon will be changed. It shouldn't affect the story too much though. Thank you for reading.**_

' _Italics' – OC's thought_

 _ **Episode 1 - Arrival**_

* * *

 **?**

Black clouds sprawled across the sky, the heavy rain within dragged it down to the tip of the mountains below. The weight being too much of a burden to bear the clouds quickly gave in and the rain poured down upon the landscape with a roar, drowning out the sound of a nearby waterfall on the largest mountain within the vicinity. With the air chilled and the ice-cold water drops raining down, many creatures stayed hidden and dry in their homes. Then purple streaks of light struck the tall the mountains, only a few seconds later a loud boom echoed throughout the land, followed by another, and another, the process repeated itself constantly. It's almost as if the Heavens are punishing the beings living in the world below them. From the black clouds two shadowed figures burst through, heading straight for the waterfall. Piercing the curtains of the waterfall the two figures disappeared through the heavy downward flow of water.

Behind the waterfall was a long narrow cave and at the end, light. The two figures kept flying until they broke through the light, entering a gigantic cavern. The cavern, created in an elongated dome shape, was so far in the mountain that the sounds of the storm outside seemed only like whispers. Crystals of various colors formed in random places in the space, but enough to illuminate the area. Surprisingly lush green plants filling in the empty spaces. A small pool of water in the middle of the cavern, in it, existed a school of koi fish. At the back of the cavern was a medium-sized natural stone pillar, the top of the pillar seemed to replicate a throne.

The two shadowed figures landed next to the pillar. One stepped towards the pillar, biting his thumb to draw out some blood. He then rubbed it in his hand and placed his palm on the back of the pillar. The bottom of the stone pillar started to disintegrate, forming an entrance to a hole just beneath it. The first figure jumped in followed by the second. After a short drop they arrived at the bottom of the hole. Another cavern, although more compact then the one above it, this cavern was much more spacious. In the center was a large fire orange crystal.

When the figure that opened the entrance to this cavern started his approach, the second figure put his hand on his shoulder, stopping him from moving. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.

The first figure brushed off the second's hand and responded, "I've been thinking about this too much, I'm sure." Their voice being identical.

"But you're so close to the end, why not finish it?"

"I trust you to finish it for me,"

The second figure sighed and nodded, "I'll take care of the others for you."

The first figure had a sad smile on his face but didn't let the second see it, "Thank you."

The second then stood with his back straight with his feet together, still facing the first. His right hand clenched into a fist and the left hand in a palm, then connected the two in front of the middle of his chest, around the distance of two fists from his chest to the hands, shoulders relaxed and elbows raised to just below the wrist. The first figure turned and returned the gesture.

* * *

 **1000+ Years Later, Underworld, Gremory Territory**

Storms were rare in the Underworld but they would happen every so often, the wind making the rain fly in different directions every few minutes. The majority of devils that would walk outside during this time usually donned raincoats as umbrellas would be sent flying. Zeoticus Gremory, a handsome middle-aged devil with long crimson hair and bright blue eyes, also a short beard the same color as his hair. The current leader of the Gremory Clan, one of the surviving thirty-three pillars. With the storm still active there wasn't much for him to do, his wife Venelana Bael was currently looking after their one-year-old daughter, the maids and butlers doing their daily routine within the castle. He sighed and opened the door to his study room, he went over to one of the large bookshelves connected to the wall and hovered his hand over the selection of books. Finally selecting a book on ancient stories older than himself, he went over to his desk and sat down. The rain creating a soothing noise as it collided with the tall window behind him as he started to read.

After an hour of reading about an event noted down as ' _The Heavenly War'_ , the storm seemed to get more intense than before, lightning flew across the clouds like eels chasing fish through the water, the thunder being so repetitive that it soon seemed more like a drum band than a natural event. Placing a bookmark on his current page, Zeoticus closed the book and stood up. Looking out the window, he gazed at the territory he ruled, in the corner of his eye he saw something in the clouds. Within the eggplant purple clouds was a speck of red. Zeoticus locked his gaze on the speck, the longer he looked at it the larger it got, until it dyed clouds in the area it was in crimson. Then something punctured through the clouds, the Head of Gremory's eyes widened at the sight.

"A meteor?" he gasped as he watched the object descend in a diagonal direction towards the ground.

Zeoticus was not about to let his territory to face possible destruction from the mysterious object, he rushed out of the room and out of the castle, several guards accompanying him out of request. The Gremory Head was usually laid back and rarely ever called on the help of the castle guards so the selected guards knew that this was serious. The meteor now descending at a strangely slower rate, caused a commotion within the devil population, now that every being in the Underworld had a good look at it. The fire surrounding the head was a deep orange, then coating the orange and extending all the way to the tail was a bright red mix of electricity and fire, around the length of three football stadiums. The heat emitting from it made the devils grateful for the icy rain upon them. Zeoticus sighed in relief as he saw that the meteor left Gremory territory and headed towards the mountains on the outskirts where no devil lived, however, curiosity got the better of him and dismissed the guards as he continued chasing after it himself. Sweating from the distance he ran and the heat of the meteor, he saw his first child and only son Sirzechs Lucifer flying above the trees, Sirzechs resembled his father in almost every way apart from the beard and also looked to be in his early to mid-twenties. Activating his own wings he flew up beside his son. Sirzechs greeted him with a nod and the father-son duo raced after the fireball.

Then came the moment the devils were dreading, impact. The meteor crashed into the ground making it look like a volcano eruption where it landed, smoke circling the explosion like a whirlpool. Although the two were far enough from the impact zone to not take serious damage or be blown away from the sheer force of the collision, they still had to create small barriers around them to not be burnt by the waves of heat spewing in every direction. Soon after a fifteen-minute struggle, everything became calm again. Sirzechs dismissed his barrier first and flew towards where the meteor struck, as one of the Four Great Satans he felt that it was his duty to be at the area first to make sure that it wouldn't affect the regular day lives of the Underworld's main inhabitants. Zeoticus soon followed his son. Soon the two arrived at the crash site.

The other three Satans were also present, Serafall Leviathan, a beautiful girl that seemed to be in her late teens with black hair tied in twin tails, cyan eyes, and a child-like body but large breasts. Ajuka Beelzebub, a handsome but slightly feminine looking devil appearing in his early twenties, crystal blue eyes and slicked-back olive hair. And Falbium Asmodeus, a man that seemed to be the same age or slightly older than Sirzechs, completely bald with the only area of his head with hair being his goatee. The three devil leaders standing together next to an enormous crate that split a small mountain-like hill in two. The Gremory duo landed next to them, Ajuka greeting them with a simple nod, as the five devils were too speechless at the event that just occurred. Smoke still rising from the crater the Leaders and Zeoticus just stared at the crater not knowing the right course of action to face this problem as nothing like this ever happened, even if it did it was most likely way before their time.

After a long silence, Sirzechs spoke up, "I'm going down to take a look."

"Wait! Son!" Zeoticus tried to stop him but his son was already sliding down to the bottom.

The devils at the top of the crater held their breath as Sirzechs approached the middle of the crater, smoke still being emitted from the center. Dispelling the smoke with magic, Sirzechs stood astonished at the sight in front of him.

He turned around and signaled the others to come down, "All of you, you must see this."

The desperation in his voice caused the other devil's curiosity to reach its peak, the Satans and Zeoticus made their way down to Sirzechs. And as soon as they saw the object up close, their eyes widened until they couldn't widen any more.

"What is that?" Ajuka asked, wanting to touch the object but hesitating at the thought that it is still an unknown object and may potentially cause harm to him.

In the ground in front of them was a large smooth cracked boulder, from under the boulder neon orange light broke through the cracks, making it look like a trapped sun. Shortly after the cracked areas started to break off and crumble on the ground, revealing half of an orange deltahedron crystal.

"The other half is still in the ground," Falbium suddenly stated.

"What do you mean?" Serafall replied, Falbium pointed at the cracks created by the impact and Serafall's gaze followed his finger. The same neon orange lights leaked from the ground beneath.

"Let's take it out," Sirzechs ordered, "That way we can get a better look at it."

Soon afterward, the five managed to get the entire crystal out of the ground using magic and their own physical strength. The entire thing was almost twice their height.

"It's so pretty," Serafall said as she stared at the crystal, mesmerized.

Sirzechs nodded in agreement, "A shard of this could fetch a high price anywhere."

"Look! In the middle!" Serafall suddenly shouted while pointing at the crystal. The others directed their gaze towards the center of the crystal.

"Is that a-?" Zeoticus began staring at the crystal in disbelief.

"Child?" Ajuka finished, looking as bewildered as the rest.

An infant no older than a month seemed to be frozen in the very center of the crystal, beside it was a green flag of some sort that was also frozen.

"Quick get it out…Now!" Zeoticus yelled, his paternal instincts overtaking him for that moment. Sirzechs nodded and charged a ball of destruction in his hand. Then firing it towards the crystal. All of them became astonished as the crystal seemed to take no damage from it.

"I-It took a hit from Zechs," Falbium stuttered.

"Let's try again," Ajuka said, charging his own element attack. The others including Zeoticus following his actions.

For the next ten minutes, the Leaders and Gremory Head attempted to break open the crystal to free the child with demonic magic, but only putting enough power in it to not injure the child inside. Falbium started to get slightly annoyed at the crystal and started to charge an attack with both hands, creating a large ball of electricity.

"Wait! That attack might ki-," Serafall started but got cut off when a low rumble was heard. The attention being directed back to the crystal, the top started to melt.

Melting to just about a quarter of the crystal, it started to crack after the melting stopped, the amount of cracks in the crystal made it look like an army of spiders decided to weave their webs around it. Then it shattered like thin glass. Only a small slab remained under the infant slowly hovering down. When the slab landed safely on the ground the devils approached. The devils now getting a better chance to examine the boy, nothing too unordinary. He had black hair but with his eyes still closed, there was no chance to see the colors of his eyes.

"It's a boy," Sirzechs said, looking at the child, then it hit him, "Is he alive?"

Serafall who crouched beside the boy placed two fingers over his chest and then in front of the nose, sighing in relief she turned her head towards the crimson-haired Satan and nodded.

"What's this?" Ajuka murmured when he picked up the flag on the ground, shaking the dirt off it and inspecting it carefully.

The flag itself is emerald-colored, in the center is a symbol of some sort. A peach with the tip pointing up and two leaves growing from the bottom, one pointing left the other pointing right. Then behind it is five petals, one pointing up, two pointing left and right, and the last two pointing diagonally downwards on each side. Behind the petals is a triangle with a smaller triangle connected to it, symbolizing a mountain with two peaks. The peach's color is black with a white outline, the petals white, and the mountain black.

Ajuka folded the flag and handed it to Sirzechs, "You keep it, I'll hurry back and calm the citizens,"

Sirzechs nodded and grabbed ahold of the flag, Ajuka spread his wings and gestured towards Falbium to go with him. The two Leaders flew away, heading for the closest city. Meanwhile Serafall who was holding the boy in her arms walked over to them.

"What shall we do with him?" Sirzechs asked, glancing back at the crater one more time, the slab that the boy laid upon disappeared.

"My family could look after him," Serafall suggested, "We all have dark blue or black hair so he shouldn't have too much trouble fitting in, appearance-wise anyway."

Sirzechs was about to agree but Serafall continued, "While I don't doubt that my parents would look after him like their own child, but…it's just that they're busy with Sona right now and they want to focus more time on her, I don't think it would be the best idea for him to come with me."

Zeoticus rubbed his beard as he said, "Very well then, until we find his parents or find parents for him, the Gremory Household will keep him."

Sirzechs seemed a little surprised at his father's answer but still agreed that it's the best solution as of now. Soon the three devils went their separate ways, with the Gremory Head holding the boy in one arm.

"Now…how am I going to explain this?" he murmured.

* * *

 **2 Hours Later, Gremory Castle**

After the news of Zeoticus returning with a young black-haired boy, Zeoticus, his wife Venelana, and his son Sirzechs, now sitting around a small bed in one of the castle's many spare rooms. The boy now clothed and lying down on his back asleep. Zeoticus with the help of Sirzechs managed to get Venelana to understand the current situation.

"There are many couples that want kids but still haven't succeeded, if we put him up for adoption I' m sure there will many offers," Sirzechs suggested.

"But how many of them want non-devil children?" Venelana asked.

Silence once again engulfed the room for a minute before Zeoticus broke the silence, "Say, don't you feel this strange energy coming from him?"

"Now that you mention it," Sirzechs leaned closer to the boy, "It's not strong but I do sense some type of demonic energy, doesn't feel like a devil's though."

"Another species perhaps, like a Youkai?" Venelana suggested.

"It is possible," Zeoticus said rubbing his beard remembering the meteor from earlier, "That still doesn't explain how he got here,"

"Or this," Sirzechs added pulling out the flag that accompanied the child. After a few seconds of silence Venelana excused herself to check on Rias leaving the two males of Gremory.

"You think one of the elders know about this flag?" Sirzechs asked while laying out the flag on the bed, "I've never seen this symbol before, but they might know,"

"Let's hope so," Zeoticus walked forward and picked up the flag as he headed towards the door.

"Are you going now?" Sirzechs asked, his father nodded a response, "I'll come with you,"

When the door closed the boy's eyes started to twitch, then finally opening revealing fiery orange irises and black pupils. The boy looked around before flipping onto his front, falling asleep again.

* * *

 **Lilith, Capital of Satan Territory**

Lilith a large circular city with the buildings getting taller as they reach the center, as the capital of the Underworld it maintains a bustling environment with devils and their familiars doing everyday tasks. Currently the Gremory father-son duo made their way towards the capital's library a large and tall stone structure with over a hundred floors, one of the oldest buildings in the Underworld, storing important archives of the past and present. Older devils would usually visit this place as some of the items inside would remind them of their youth. Once they were inside, they were directed to the Head Librarian on floor seventy who was one of the oldest devils currently in the Underworld.

Sirzechs and Zeoticus approached the Head Librarian who was currently writing something in a book with a quill. The librarian's attire showed the laid back life he had, a simple brown robe and glasses, in his mouth he held a pipe. Looking up he stood up and removed the pipe from his mouth, exhaling small puffs of smoke. "Lord Lucifer, Lord Gremory, what can I do for you today?"

Zeoticus handed him the flag, "We are hoping that you know something about this,"

The Librarian adjusted his glasses as he took the flag, unfolding it, "Ah, now let's see here,"

After a few moments of studying the flag, he turned to the two crimson-haired devils and took a deep breath and pulled two chairs over, gesturing for the two to sit. "I've seen this symbol somewhere,"

The two Gremory devils took a seat and leaned forward, wanting to pay attention to the Librarian so they can receive information about the boy's origins. The old book-keeper headed into a backroom, moments later he returned and in his hands was a medium-sized crimson book, the cover was tattered and covered with dust.

"In this encyclopedia contains many different documents of the past, things that have been forgotten through time, some of it for the good of all races," he began, sitting down with the book on his desk, "You both know about the Great War between Angels, the Fallen, and us. But before that was something even more horrid. A devastating war so bloody that the Gods had to erase the memory of the survivors. A war where the world almost ended. At least that is what the legend states."

"Like, Ragnarok?" Sirzechs asked, only receiving a head shake from the elder devil.

"No worse, Odin was alive and well, in fact, it is said he even participated in the war, the name of that mythical conflict is known as _The Heavenly War_ ,"

The realization hit Zeoticus like a giant landslide, "I was reading on that just before that meteor hit!"

"And this flag was found at the site?" the elder asked, receiving nods from the father-son duo, "This news must be kept secret at all times," the elder hissed.

Both Sirzechs and Zeoticus were slightly shocked by the elder's sudden change, the elder himself already opened the book and flipping pages nonstop, searching for something. An eerie silence fell upon them when the Librarian stopped.

"Look here," the old devil said while spinning the book around so the crimson-haired duo could see.

"What is it?" Zeoticus asked as he rose from his seat. His son was already in front of the desk looking at the two pages that were shown.

"Father, Look,"

The two stared at the pages, their eyes carefully scanning the paper. There was an old piece of parchment glued on, in the right corner the unknown symbol was drawn with black ink. Under it was writing that none of them have seen before.

"And what does this," Sirzechs gestured to the symbol, "What exactly does this represent?"

"I don't know," The Librarian replied, "But I have a theory,"

Zeoticus placed his palms on the desk, "Please, tell us,"

The elder devil cleared his throat before starting to speak, "According to the legends, ' _The Heavenly War'_ was a colossal-scale war that transcended through the realms. And is the only time, every pantheon all united against a common enemy. Except for the Jade Realm, after the disappearance of the Jade Emperor, the realm locked itself and apparently a civil war for power broke out within. The remaining pantheons combated against the enemy, losing almost every single battle, and in the end, somehow, the pantheons achieved victory over the dark force. But I don't believe it, something must've happened that caused fighting to stop,"

"So just who or what was this, dark force?" Sirzechs asked.

"We are not sure, or we weren't sure. But the most popular answer from both historians and story-tellers is, _The Seven Kings_ ,"

"The Seven Kings?" The Maou repeated, now intrigued at the name he has never heard before.

"Yes, that is what the legends call them," The Librarian closed the book, "But in the end, there has never been proof of their existence, and The Heavenly War was largely speculated to be a children's tale and forgotten,"

"But that," The elder pointed at the emerald flag and grinned in excitement, "is our first-ever solid proof, this flag, this symbol, the stories, the dots are finally connecting,"

"The flag?" Zeoticus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, in some of the old texts written during that time, it is said that a green flag decorated with a fruit, within a flower, within a mountain was the war banner of the Youngest King,"

"And that King's name?" Sirzechs asked, getting slightly excited himself.

"No one knows," the elder replied, Sirzechs' shoulders slumped, "But we do know that according to the tale, he was the third strongest King and an extremely powerful demon that overwhelmed his opponents in close combat."

Sirzechs and Zeoticus exchanged glances. Both of their minds flashed an image of the infant boy found earlier, the duo nodded to each other and decided to keep his existence a secret, for now.

"Thank you for telling us this sir," Zeoticus said as he shook the elder devil's hand. He walked up to the flag and folded it, holding it with one hand.

"It is an honor, Lord Lucifer, Lord Gremory," the elder bowed while shaking the younger crimson-haired devil.

"No, No, you have provided us some great answers," Sirzechs replied with a smile.

The old devil turned around and went back to his own business as the crimson duo left. While preparing the magic circle back to the castle, no words were exchanged as both devils were in deep thought, their minds still absorbing in the information. They came with a single question, but left with a dozen more

* * *

 **Next Day, Gremory Castle**

"We're keeping him," Zeoticus said, his hands one his wife's shoulders, the statement leaving her shocked at her husband's decision. The two stood in front of the desk in the Head of Gremory's study with Sirzechs entering as soon as he finished speaking.

"T-This is a bit sudden don't you think?" Venelana stuttered.

"It's for the best mother," Sirzechs added, "Only the Satans, father, and you know about him, if word gets out that a child came crashing into the Underworld in a giant ball of fire, I'm certain that some people will take the news negatively. So I think he should stay until this incident is forgotten,"

"It's not that I'm opposed to this," Venelana said looking at the ground, then looking up at her husband and son, "How will we explain this to everyone else?"

"Originally I was thinking about making him a butler, or a guard, but" Zeoticus now heading towards the door, signaling the other two to follow him, "But it feels like, he has a destiny larger than we could all fathom,"

The three devils now headed towards the room that the boy was housed in, opening it the doors they saw that nothing had changed from the previous time the entered the room. The child quietly sleeping on his back.

"Maybe we could say that he's one of your brothers-in-arms' child, and that he died recently so he gave you his son to raise," Sirzechs suggested, "Or maybe something like-"

"We need to give him a name," Venelana said as she started to stroke the child's black hair.

"Mother adapted to this a lot quicker than I thought," Sirzechs whispered in his father's ear.

"Better early than late right?" he responded.

"Isn't the saying better late than never?"

"Ah, that doesn't matter, anyway, Sirzechs, what is our territory's counterpart in the human world?" Zeoticus asked.

"East Asia is located above us," Sirzechs replied, "Why?"

"Well considering that he crashed here in a ball of fire from the sky," Zeoticus explained, "I thought it was only fitting for him to have a name from the world above,"

Sirzechs glanced at the boy and responded, "How about, Yoruno Tatsu or Tatsu Yoruno,"

"Not a bad ring to it," Zeoticus stated, "Easy to pronounce too, what does it mean?"

"No idea," Sirzechs shrugged, "Just thought it sounds nice,"

Venelana nodded, eyes still focused on the sleeping boy, "Then it's decided, your name shall be Tatsu,"

After a moment of observing infant now named _Tatsu_ , the three devils left him to sleep, Sirzechs then asked his parents as they were closing the door, "What are we going to tell Ria?"

"We'll just say that she has a younger brother now, nothing more until she turns twenty," Zeoticus replied, "By then she should be mature enough to understand,"

Sirzechs nodded and waited for his mother to walk ahead before whispering in his father's ear, "Have you told mother, about Tatsu's possible origins?"

Zeoticus shook his head and whispered back, "For now we should keep this to ourselves, Ajuka and the others may know later, but that's it,"

* * *

 **6 Years Later**

Tatsu, now six years old, ran through the halls of the Gremory Castle, with his older sister receiving lessons on magic control and other things to help her become the perfect heiress for the Gremory clan, he himself didn't have much to do. Although his adoptive parents never told him that he was not originally from their household, he has always known that something was different about him, he has black hair and orange eyes, a completely different color palette from their red hair and blue eyes. His adoptive father Zeoticus would usually tell him to not leave the castle's perimeter. As a result, to cure his boredom he started to train in martial arts, his method was secretly watching the guards spar with or without weapons in the courtyard and imitate them in private.

Focused in his thoughts he didn't notice Sirzechs in front of him and would have collided into him if the older devil didn't step to the side and grab him by the collar as he ran past.

"And where are you going in such a rush?" he asked amused at the baffled expression on the young boy's face.

"U-uh…to w-watch…the birds...and they need to be fed?" Tatsu stuttered.

Sirzechs sighed putting the boy back on the floor, "The guards are taking a rest today so there won't be any entertainment for you,"

"Aww, but I don't have anything else to do," Tatsu complained, "Nee-sama is always taking lessons and I'm not allowed to go anywhere,"

Sirzechs ruffled his spikey black hair, "Well then do I have news for you, in two days I'm sending you to the world above,"

Tatsu gasped excitedly at the news, his eyes sparkled as he stared at the older devil. "You mean, the Human World?"

"Yeah, both father and mother were against it at first but, they eventually gave in," Sirzechs replied rubbing his nose, looking a little proud, "You'll be going to a place called Carrot Leaf Elementary School in Kuoh Town, Japan"

Eventually, Sirzechs left the boy to his own devices, Tatsu sped through the castle excited by his chance to get out of this suffocating castle, but there was another thing on his mind.

 _'Wait_ _Carrots have leaves?'_

* * *

 **Carrot Leaf Elementary School, Kuoh, Japan**

True to his word, Sirzechs Lucifer sent Tatsu to the human world, although he was never told the reasoning, he never opposed the idea of going. At first his nerves crushed him but his curiosity gave him the needed push to attend the school where he has already been studying for a whole month. Every day taking the train to and from the Underworld to get to his destination.

Like the other thirty students in his class, Tatsu was scribbling down notes from the blackboard. Suddenly the door opened, startling the young boy causing him to impale the tip of his pen into his notes. Looking up, he saw the teacher walk in with a boy around his age. The boy had brown spikey hair with two short locks of hair behind his head, and light brown eyes. He wore a red t-shirt and white shorts.

The teacher cleared his throat, "Class, sorry to interrupt but we have a new student joining us today,"

"Hello everybody, I'm Hyoudou Issei, nice to meet you all," the boy said, ending with a bow. The class applauded as the teacher scanned the classroom for a spare seat.

Pointing at the empty desk next to Tatsu, the teacher said, "Issei, if you would please sit over there next to Tatsu. Tatsu please raise your hand,"

The black-haired boy raised his hand as Issei made his way next to him, sliding into the seat as the teacher turned around and started to continue the lesson.

Tatsu started to write down notes in his notebook again, he flinched when Issei whispered in his ear.

"Hi, my name is Hyoudou Issei,"

' _I know'_

The black-haired boy quickly scribbled something in the corner of his page, ripping it off and handing it to the boy next to him. On the paper it read: _I'm Yoruno Tatsu, the teacher gets really angry if we talk in class so don't talk_.

Issei quickly scribbled something on the ripped page and passed it back. Tatsu glanced at it quickly, the brown-haired boy replied with a drawing of a thumbs-up, stuffing the paper into his pocket and refocusing on the lesson.

* * *

 _ **Episode 1: Finish**_

 _ **Thank You For Reading**_

 _ **Next Episode:**_ _**A Normal Life**_


	2. A Normal Life

_**Welcome (Back?) This story involves an Original Character therefore some parts of the canon will be changed. It shouldn't affect the story too much though. Thank you for reading.**_

' _Italics' - OC's Thoughts_

 _ **Episode 2 - A Normal Life**_

* * *

 **Kuiper Belt, Unknown Amount of Years Before Start of DXD**

Five billion, seven hundred million kilometers, or three billion, five hundred forty-one million, eight hundred fifteen thousand, seven hundred ninety-five miles. The total distance that separated Planet Earth from _them_. Seven beings of different shapes and sizes stood upon one of the millions of asteroids residing within the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the solar system. Each of them wore long black cloaks that hid their entire bodies.

The bulkiest of the seven standing at 1.87 meters or 6 foot 2, crossed his arms and paced around the center of the asteroid. The other six took this as a sign that they too could relax slightly, most of them sitting in pairs scattered across the surface of the large space rock.

After what seemed like hours but in reality, only a couple of minutes, Standing at over 2.13 meters or 7 feet, the tallest of the cloaked beings glanced at the sun before standing up and walking to the edge of the asteroid, "Come brothers, it's time," he informed.

The six started to rise from their sitting positions and stretched their limbs before relocating themselves to his side, all of them now staring at the sun.

"Now," murmured the bulkiest one.

The moment he closed his mouth, the corona of the sun started to stretch up as if it were alive. Each strand of the plasma started to fuse with a neighboring strand on the journey up and soon merged into a towering mutual body. A spear-like pillar of red-orange plasma the size of ten Jupiters shot out from the top of the sun like a rocket, and as quick as it formed, it disappeared into the ever-expanding universe.

For just one second, the solar system lost its light.

"Brothers!" shouted the bulked figure as he turned to face his ' _brothers'_ with his hands behind his back, gripping his left fist with his right hand. "I need not explain again our reason to fight, for our aspirations are shared. I am confident, that every one of you will win your battles no matter how long it takes, for our power is what united us. And I trust, that our alliance will lead us to victory, for the world...no, the universe will remember this day for all of time!"

Some toothy and close-mouthed smirks appeared on the others' faces, most of them cracking their necks and knuckles after hearing the short speech from their leader. The leader glanced at each member of the alliance, and with a small smile he turned his head and looked towards the sun. The former cosmic gargantuan ball of fire now nearly extinguished, only strings of the corona remained. He raised his right hand at the sun.

Half a second later the dying sun started to glow crimson, the strands of plasma started to slither around the sphere at high speeds like a snake retreating from an eagle. From above, the same spear of solar energy came crashing down into the cosmic sphere, seeming like it would of explode on impact. Instead like a waterdrop the spear splashed onto the extinguished sun, quickly and quietly cloaking the sphere, igniting it once more. The sun looked as if nothing had happened to it in the first place.

Satisfied, the leader slowly floated up off the asteroid as the others followed suit. The seven hovered over the astroid until the leader blasted off, flying in the direction of Earth, one by one the remaining six members began their own ascent, flying at extreme speeds behind the leader in a V Formation, readying themselves for battle.

* * *

 **Kuoh Town, Present Day**

Black and white, the only two colors that flashed constantly through the glass panels most commonly known as, the windows. Not the best thing for one's eyes to be fixed on but it's better than staring at the seething mass of humans. People from different paths of life gathered in this one spot, standing in each other's faces, shoulder to shoulder, accidentally breathing down another's neck. The words 'personal space' being thrown out of the dictionary of every person there. The sheer amount of body heat shared around the space would make anyone sweat even if the air conditioners were turned on high. Just another normal day on a subway train during the morning rush hour.

Yoruno Tatsu, now a 17-year-old boy standing at 1.75 meters (5'74) tall with neat but still slightly messy jet black hair, the bangs going down to the middle of his forehead. His face is considered idol quality however not on the level of pretty as a stereotypical shojo manga pretty boy but still manages to catch the attention of females in various age groups, and a lean athletic body hidden by his clothes. His fire orange eyes were glued to his hands that gripped the top strap of his gray backpack that rested on top of his shoes. He was dressed in the boy's uniform of Kuoh Academy. The uniform commonly consisted of a black blazer with white accents over a white, long-sleeved, button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes.

In Tatsu's case, the only parts of the uniform he actually wore were the pants and blazer. Instead of brown dress shoes, he had black and white running shoes. Underneath the blazer, he wore a stringless hoodie the same shade of orange as his eyes. Does he regularly get into trouble for styling the uniform to suit his own tastes? Yes, at least three times a week from six different faculty members. Will he ever decide to wear the full uniform again? No, as he… lost the other pieces of the uniform.

" **Next Stop Academy District, Next Stop Academy District,"**

Tatsu let out a small sigh, with both relief and annoyance mixed into it. Relief because after twenty-five minutes of being suffocated inside a boiling subway cart filled to the brink with sweaty work clothes and flesh. Annoyance due to the fact that he had to get through the said mass of sweaty work clothes and flesh just to get to the exit in under a minute. And to make things worse, he just so happened to be standing in the worst possible position, the middle of the entire cart. And from his location the doors were only heard, not seen. His chances of exiting the train and getting to school on time diminishing by the second. Nevertheless, just like the old saying, ' _A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'_ Tatsu takes his first step.

' _Maybe I should just buy a bike, I could really use a bike...Ahh, but I just topped-up my card this morning...Dang it, now I have to wait 'till next month'_

Kuoh Academy, a moderately-sized school with the majority of buildings built with a European concept in mind. With tall brick walls protecting the grounds and lush green trees planted parallel to the walls with a small section of woods in the back. From a distance, anyone could tell that the school is definitely a prestigious one. Once an all-girls-school, only recently did it become co-ed. Thus the girls outnumbered the boys by a large amount.

On a normal day, most students of the academy would be heading to class early, walking and chatting about all sorts of gossip with their group of friends, some would stand around in the courtyard until after the ring of the bell until bolting off to their respective classrooms before getting yelled at by teachers, others would be cramming in last bits of homework and assignments in the classrooms. And three certain male students would be off somewhere engaging in...scientific research. The classic morning scene of an ordinary high school.

Except for this morning...it was quiet, only the sounds of birdsong and the occasional vehicle that drove past on the road in front of the front gate, the courtyard even had sparrows picking at the insects on the ground, and bees searching for flowers to pollinate. The groundskeeper after enjoying the scenery for a few minutes decided it was time to close the gates and let the school day officially begin. And at that moment the silence shattered like sugar glass.

"Waaiiitt!"

Tatsu came skidding around a corner and subsequently crashing his side into a street light due to the result of the speed he was running at and attempting to drift like a racecar fighting for first place at the corner. The old groundskeeper just looked blinking several times in surprise at the young boy as he sat on the ground rubbing his left shoulder really fast to nullify the pain. A second later the same boy dashed straight through the gates, heading for the entrance of the main school building.

Reaching the stairs, Tatsu started to go up the stairs four steps at a time, however, today luck was just not on his side, reaching the middle of his second flight of stairs he tripped causing him to fall forward. Instead of crashing on his face he slapped his hands onto the next step and quite literally, climbed the stairs.

Finally arriving on his desired floor he sprinted towards his classroom...that happened to be at the end of the hallway. As the door came into sight he reached his hand out to grab the handle, only to miss it and with a loud ear-piercing screech collided into the wall. For the second time today and barely within three minutes of the first incident, he sat on the ground rapidly rubbing his left shoulder to nullify the pain.

* * *

 **Kuoh Academy, Class 2-B**

Hyoudo Issei, a 17-year-old boy with short spiky brown hair, two short locks of brown hair behind his head, and eyes the same color as his hair. Infamously known as the third member of the 'Perverted Trio' of Kuoh Academy. His cheek resting on his left hand as he doodled in his notebook. The teacher's lecture going through one ear and out the next, Issei looked at the empty desk on his left.

"It's been 20 minutes, where the heck is he?" Issei murmured while glancing at the clock above the blackboard.

"-which produce significant long-range forces whose effects can be seen directly in everyday life, and the strong and weak interactions, which produce forces at minuscule, subatomic distances and govern nuclear intera-," the teacher, a graying middle-aged man wearing a brown suit and glasses explained while writing on the board with a stick of chalk.

SLAM!

The teacher jumped, tensing up in the process and accidentally snapping his chalk, the students yelped, dropped stationary, or hit their knees on their desk from the sudden loud noise. Every head turned and glared at the figure that stood in the doorway trying to control his breathing with deep inhaling and exhaling, his hand slowly slid down the oak wood door squeaking from the friction as it did. Not wasting a second he attempted to quietly shuffle towards his desk which just so happened to be at the very back of the classroom, raising his backpack to beside his face in an attempt to avoid the gazes of every person in the room. Especially the-

"Yoruno Tatsu!"

Teacher.

Tatsu slightly lowered the backpack to just enough for his bright orange irises to be revealed, upon seeing the look on his teachers face he swiftly swung his backpack behind his legs as he held onto the top strap with both hands and stood completely still while trying his best to not make direct eye contact with the teacher by darting his eyes around the classroom searching for something to stare nervously at. A sweatdrop trickled down his temple to his cheek. The black-haired boy gulped, bracing himself for an agonizing long lecture on, _'Respecting school property, Why being late will affect this and that'_

"I do not appreciate tardiness in any circumstance," the teacher said in a calm but stern voice to him while reaching for a small green box on his lecture podium, "Make sure this does not happen again,"

Tatsu mentally let out a sigh of relief and bowed at his teacher, the teacher let him off surprisingly easy, perhaps being in the 'Top 5' of the class helped his chances. The teacher turned around, pulled out another white chalk from the box, and resumed his lecture on physics. Tatsu sank into his seat and cracked the fingers on his right hand before pulling out the essentials such as pens and notebooks from his backpack. Issei saw his chance and leaned towards him with his notebook in hand.

"Look at what you made me do," he whispered in the quietest way possible, showing him the picture he was drawing before Tatsu's abrupt entrance. It was a female's body that lacked any type of clothing, with the womanly features being drawn to an exaggerated state. The image also had a straight black line running diagonally upwards. The orange-eyed boy stared at it, looking visibly confused.

"What is that, a peanut?" he whispered back.

"No you dimwit! It's Kaben Rider Pinky!" Issei replied, whispering but it sounded more like a hiss.

"Really? It looks more like a disfigured cave painting," Tatsu replied with a small smirk growing on his face. Dissing his childhood friend's skill of drawing bodies is a daily routine for him.

"I'll show you disfigured," Issei grit his teeth and reached out, about to put his friend in a headlock.

That was the plan if not for the piece of white chalk that came flying in between their desks, flying as in 'spinning in the air like a rabid magically enhanced tomahawk'. It barely missed Issei's nose and shattered on impact with the back wall. Both of them instantly hid behind their books, expressions of horror glued to their faces.

* * *

At any normal high school, the after school environment would consist of the chatter of teenagers that flow through the grounds as they would head towards the next stop in their daily schedule, be it going to the library for extra studying, committing to club activities, or just going straight home. Except for Kuoh Academy, because if you listen closely...

"Murayama's rack is frickin' huge!"

"82 cm-70 cm-81 cm,"

"Katase's legs are so fine!"

"78.5 cm-65 cm-79 cm,"

Four male students gathered around the back of a predominately wooden building. Two of them pressed together while squirming around with their faces pressed against the wall. On the left Matsuda, a self-proclaimed lolicon with a shaved head, known as the 'Perverted Baldy', on the right Motohama, a glasses-wearing pervert with the ability to calculate a female's body measurements from sight alone, earning him the title of 'Perverted Glasses'. But to a certain orange-eyed boy, they were known as Potato and Tomato respectively, simply because to him, they looked like the aforementioned vegetables.

The other two were Issei and Tatsu, the former standing behind the pair desperately searching for a way to catch a glimpse of the things they were looking at. The latter just sat with his back against the wall while drinking a small box of peach juice with a straw, the expression on his face looked as if he completely zoned out.

' _I have no idea why I'm here'_

"Hey, let me see too!" Issei cried in despair as he grabbed onto the backside of Matsuda (Potato) and began a hopeless attempt to pull him off the wall, "Don't keep it all to yourselves!"

Tatsu glanced in their direction, then shifted his body to face them. He observed the commotion caused by his friends for a minute before speaking up.

"You know, if you want to see their naked bodies so much, why don't you just ask them?"

The Perverted Trio simultaneously gasped, their heads practically snapped back towards the black-haired boy and glared at him with fire in their eyes. Tatsu blinked, a blank innocent expression plastered on his face.

"What? What happened? Did I say something wrong?"

Issei zipped over and placed an arm around his childhood friend's shoulder. The other two kept glaring from their spot by the wall.

"Tatsu, Tatsu, Tatsu," Issei started in a strangely wise sounding voice, "For us, it is not that simple. You see, what we do is a form of art cultivated from thousands of years of human evolution. Our ancestors honed their bodies and journeyed through the depths of Tartarus to ensure that these ancient techniques are passed down to future generations."

The second he finished, the duo by the wall immediately began the applause, a waterfall of tears running down each of their eyes.

"Well said Hyoudou!" Motohama cried. Matsuda knelt beside him also bawling into his sleeves.

Issei slid his arm back to his side, "Do you understand now, my friend?"

"Not really...I mean I don't see how looking through a hole-in-the-wall, counts as a technique,"

Issei put his hand on Tatsu's shoulder, "It's ok, you are too young and not yet ready to understand the ancient scriptures of Oppai,"

"But I'm 17,"

"It's fine, I forgive you," Issei hushed him with a raised index finger. Droplets of water also brimming in the corner of his eyes.

Tatsu blinked twice and shrugged, his attention now directed back to the box of the sweet nectar of crushed white peaches in his hand.

"Of course...he doesn't...understand," Matsuda exclaimed between hiccups, "He goes home every day to Kuoh's number one beauty, _the_ Rias Gremory,"

Tatsu cocked his head to the right, "Well I mean, she _is_ my sister,"

"It's not fair! Why did you never mention her until last year?!" Issei bawled with mucus fluttering in and out of his nose, "You've never had an impure thought in the eleven years we've known each other, and yet... and yet every night you get to embraced by the biggest oppai I've ever seen,"

"Well I don't 'embraced' is the right wor-,"

Issei cut him off by gripping onto his two shoulders and gazed directly into his flame-colored eyes.

"Be honest with me Tatsu, have you ever. Bathed. With. Her?"

The remaining duo shot up and huddled around the boy, their bodies shaking in anticipation for the answer as Tatsu took his time to search through his memories. Every second, the trio would lean closer but Tatsu didn't notice.

"Oh yeah, many times, I think the last time was the start of this year" he cheerfully responded, the three fell back with a "Gaagh" all three started to comically cry once again, Tatsu looked slightly confused.

"What? Isn't that normal between siblings," he asked with a sweatdrop.

"Dammit Tatsu," Matsuda uttered on his knees, staring at the grass, "How and where did your family even adopt such a specimen?"

The dark-haired boy sheepishly scratched his cheek, "Well actually, I'm the adopted one,"

Matsuda and Motohama both rolled into a fetal position, only Issei remained standing facing his best friend with a fist clenched in front of his chest.

"You wouldn't know...But that's even better,"

Tatsu let out a light laugh, this time scratching his temple with his index finger, His friends' weird obsession with the female body still bewildered him. He never found out how it started, in middle school, all four of them would talk and debate about Pokemon and Dragon Ball like normal male middle school students. Then one summer vacation later and everything changed.

"What was that?!"

Suddenly a young female's shriek sliced through all their wailing, the Perverted Trio jolted up onto their feet, their faces wore an expression of fear with a tint of trauma.

"Uh Oh!" Matsuda gasped as he and his companions started to slowly back away from the building.

"You're up pretty boy!" Motohama shouted in a panicked tone, the trio already scurrying off into the distance.

"I owe you best buddy!" Issei yelled while waving his backhand at the dark-haired boy who now went back to drinking the peach juice.

With one last mighty slurp, the boy inhaled the remaining contents inside the box, with an empty carton peach juice in hand he walked to the edge of the wooden building and peeked out from around the corner, scanning the area. As a result of being so close to the building he could hear the uproar coming from the inside.

"I'll kill them!"

"Get the perverts!"

"Show no Mercy!"

The black-haired teen sweatdropped as he heard the commotion, to him the Trio aren't that bad, sure they had very obvious flaws, but they're good people...kind of. Suddenly, from the front of the building a squadron of girls around his age came marching in his direction, all of them dressed in white kendo gear and holding bamboo swords.

"Ok, let's get to work," he murmured, hopping up and down to loosen his muscles and shake off his nerves. Taking one last glance around the corner, he saw that the stampede of kendo girls was approaching, and fast.

' _Alright remember, smile, wave, stall, leave'_

Tatsu stepped out from his hiding spot and walked at a moderate pace towards the fuming kendo practitioners. He put on a toothy grin and raised his left hand in the air, his empty box of peach juice still in his right. The sudden surprised squeals of teenage girls informed him he was doing something right.

"It's him~"

"His visuals~"

"He looks like he's filming an ad for that juice~"

"The Hidden Prince~"

Tatsu felt his cheeks starting to burn up, no matter how many times he heard the compliments given to him, he never got used to it. The black-haired teen let out a small laugh and scratched his temple. In front of him, he saw that every person in the squadron also seemed to be going red. Some of them even blocking their face with their hands but still trying to peek through their fingers.

The girl with medium-length brown hair tied back in pigtails who led the charge, nervously crept towards the boy, Tatsu recognized her as someone from his class Murayama, the one that apparently has a 'huge rack'. She stopped two strides in front of him, eyes flickering around in an attempt to avert his gaze while clearing her throat.

"S-So T-T-Tatsu, did you see three p-people running, away, o-on your way h-here?"

"They went~ They went that way," Tatsu simply replied while pointing in a random direction which happened to be the main school building.

"T-Thanks," Murayama said while staring wide-eyed in the direction he pointed in, still trying hard not to make eye contact, "L-L-Let's go, everyone,"

And with that the kendo girls left on a wild goose chase, leaving Tatsu standing there, his hands clasped together behind his head.

"The Hidden Prince huh? I almost forgot about that,"

The Hidden Prince, Tatsu's honorary title at Kuoh Academy. The title was first given to him during his first year where rumors spread of a cute and handsome new male student in class 1-A.

However due to some… 'personal issues' during that year, he rarely showed up to school. But due to his looks the people that saw him on occasion would attempt to confirm his existence with largely exaggerated tales of meeting the boy along with blurry photographs of him outside of school. At one point even some of the staff questioned his existence. Thus granting him the nickname, The Hidden Prince of Kuoh Academy. Or as Issei once called him, the Cryptid of Kuoh.

* * *

Tatsu, having finally found a place to throw out his _recyclable_ juice box, was now walking out the school gates. A large portion of the sun already under the horizon line, the rich shades of orange blending with crimson, gold, and pink. Hues of blue and purple washing into the retreating light. The velvet sky seemed as if it was colored in by a master artist using pastel.

While walking down the streets he looked up at the amber sky, admiring the natural painting. If he had to sum up his current thoughts with one word, it would be _satisfied_. Satisfied with his life, waking up at six in the morning, taking the subway to school, hanging out with friends, walking back home, maybe stopping for snacks on the way, study for tests, and then going to sleep at eleven. It's ordinary, sure it gets annoying sometimes as there must be a balance in all things, but more than anything it's _peaceful_.

"Hey! Dibshit!"

And there goes the peace.

Before Tatsu could turn around to see who it was, someone grabbed his hood and pulled it over his face preventing him from seeing the aggressor. The aggressor then quickly put Tatsu in a headlock and dragged him into a nearby alley.

The aggressor proceeded to throw Tatsu face-first into a wall. Tatsu bounced off the wall and fell onto the ground into a small puddle of murky water. With no time to recover from the sudden assault, Tatsu found himself held up against the wall by the collar of his orange hoodie and thrown to the wall parallel to the first one. Tatsu coughed on impact, the second throw definitely had more power behind than the first. This time he collapsed onto all fours, a small stinging sensation in his palms as he landed on the uneven ground. His aggressor squatted down in front of him, in one swift motion ripped Tatsu's hood back.

Tatsu finally could get a good look at the attacker, he had the look of a delinquent. Backward combed tawny-colored hair and eyes of the same color., wearing the standard male Kuoh uniform without the blazer, with the sleeves of the white shirt ripped off and holes in his trousers.

This is Kenji, a third-year, the strongest fighter at Kuoh Academy as he practically lives in the boxing gym he attends. He is infamous for regularly getting into fights for a variety of reasons, be it defending a first-year from bullying or jabbing someone in the face for looking at him funny. He also had a hatred for Tatsu ever since his first day at school and would regularly find an excuse to beat him up. How the hatred began is a complete mystery for the black-haired boy.

"You know," Kenji starts while picking his ear with a pinky, "Last week, my girl said she felt like she was being watched by multiple people while in the change rooms after swim club,"

Tatsu was about to reply when Kenji pushed his face backward causing him to stumble back into a sitting position with his back against the rough brick wall.

"Don't interrupt. Anyway when she went to check it out and apparently, she saw you and apparently asked if you saw anyone nearby. She said you said no. But you know, you know today I saw something very interesting,"

Kenji then grabbed Tatsu by the collar and dragged him onto his feet and held him against the wall with one hand.

"I. Saw. You. I saw you hanging out with _those three_ by the kendo building, and I definitely saw you telling them to run while you went around the corner to distract those poor poor ladies. Yes, you and your fucking juice box," Kenji's venom-laced voice started to rise the longer he spoke.

"So the point is that you, fucking! Lied! To my girl and in a way lied to me! And when one lies that means they're lookin' down on someone. And that means you're lookin' down on me. No one looks down on me! Do you understand!"

For a moment the area was silent, the only audible sounds being cars in the distance and the raging breaths of the delinquent boxer.

Tatsu's bangs covered his eyes, his entire body looked as if it went limp, dangling from his collar. Seeing this Kenji let go of the collar letting the boy to lean against the wall, his head still hanging down.

"You know I understand those three. They're crazed perverts by nature, and it's natural and normal for them to go around peeping into windows and holes. I can forgive them because it's the same as forgiving a stray cat ripping the head off a rat. But you, you're not a perv, you're too _innocent_ , but you hang out with them like a lost child seeking shelter, doing their dirty deeds whenever they tell you just to be accepted. And that's _pathetic_! And I hate...people who are pathetic,"

At this point, Kenji had been pinning Tatsu on the wall using a chokehold throughout his entire outburst. Seeing as the boy became statue-like he let go of his throat and turned his back on him. With his back turned Kenji grew a small devilish grin on his face, suddenly twisting his body back to face Tatsu with his fist raised, using the momentum of the turn and the twist of his waist he shot his tightly-clenched fist directly into Tatsu's face full force creating a sickening crunch as bone met bone.

The black-haired boy instantly stumbled back and dropped onto the ground, back hunched over and legs sprawled out, in a similar fashion to a puppet with cut strings. Kenji stood over him like a looming vulture.

"You're not even worth my time," Kenji narrowed his eyes in a lazy manner, he put his hands in his pockets and walked out of the alley "Weakling,"

The sound of Kenji's steps to started fade in the distance when Tatsu abruptly sat up straight full of energy and started to look at both ends of the alleyway. As soon as he confirmed that the coast was clear, he hopped to his feet and dusted off his hands and pants. It was if the incident that happened a minute ago never happened at all. His hair was a mess, strands of jet black spiked in all directions.

His face was decorated with dirt, small specks off pebble, and a splotch of crimson. His uniform now soaked with green-brown water with bits of mud and some mystery substance sticking to parts of the cloth. And it smelt as bad as it looked, if a pedestrian came by they would've thought that he went on a failed expedition to find some ancient lost treasure in the sewers. The boy himself however was completely oblivious to his current state.

Tatsu then wiped his thumb across his left cheek. Looking down at his thumb he saw that blood had taken up a quarter of his thumb. ln a nonchalant way he removed the substance by smearing it on the wall behind him. Letting out a small exhale of contempt he turned and made his way out the alley, until he felt a new sensation. It felt cold and grainy, like sand wrapped in a layer of wet paper towels that hugged the skin. This new feeling manifesting in all areas of the body from the waist down.

The black-haired boy looked down at the front of his pants, then twisted his waist to look at the back. He let out a quiet but shocked ' _eep_ ' as the condition of his clothes became apparent to him. Tatsu grabbed the flaps of his blazer and to his horror, they were drenched too. Even the sleeves were wet. Letting out a slightly annoyed sigh he continued on his way, only for him to forget about the incident moments later as he was strolling down the street, whistling a tune to himself. Only one thought floated around in his mind.

' _What's for dinner?'_

At the same time in another part of town behind a convenience store, the delinquent Kenji was on his knees and his body curled forward, trembling in pain. His eyes almost popping out of the sockets and tears hung on the corner of his eyes. He let out short sharp shivering huffs while supporting his right forearm, with his left hand. The fingers on his right hand were unnaturally stiff and his phalanges colored blue. His entire hand swollen and bent down beyond the wrist, creating an almost perfect fold. His wrist looked rather normal aside from the fact the entire wrist was swelling and navy blue. The skin on each of his knuckles had been ripped open with some bits of skin clinging to the flesh by just a small strand and the blood slowly trickling down his hand.

" _What?! What?! What?! What?!_ " Kenji's mind shrieked, " _How?! How?! Was it-? No, it couldn't! There's no way! But then again…I-It, It, It felt like I punched a wall of pure steel!_ "

* * *

If there was one thing Tatsu didn't like, it was the emergency exit staircase of the apartment building he resided in. The building is located in Central Kuoh, a district littered with cafes, lush green trees on sidewalks, and tall modern buildings used for both residential and occupational purposes, from a distance one could mistake it for a small city.

Tatsu's apartment is located on the top floor of a twenty-five story building, normally this wouldn't be an issue for the boy due to the two strangely fast elevators in the lobby. However sometime during the day, the elevators broke down...both of them, thus forcing him to journey up the grueling twenty-five sets of concrete stairs. Luck just didn't seem to be on his side today.

After running in spirals up the tightly enclosed space made from concrete and sandstone with no ventilation, the heavy steel emergency doors flung open with Tatsu bursting through like a stray cannonball. He started to scratch the back of his head due to the amount of heat his body was emitting.

If he had to run another five floors he would've started to empathize with stone-baked pizzas. Tatsu's body was now completely covered in sweat, if his uniform wasn't one hundred percent soaked before, it definitely was now. The dark green mystery water and sweat merging together weighing down the boy's apparel but on the bright side, he looked better than he smelt.

Finally reaching the door to his apartment, his hand slumped onto the handle and pushed his shoulder against the door to open it. Upon walking in he noticed that all lights but the bathroom lights were turned off, shrugging it off he closed the door behind him and took off his shoes. From the bathroom, the muffled sounds of water hitting marble could be heard throughout the entire residence. The interior of the apartment was visually nothing special, it was simple and modern with only the essentials. Tatsu stepped onto the icy cold timber floor and immediately hid behind a creamy-white recliner. Like a meerkat he poked his head out from behind and stared at the bathroom door, pale yellow light seeping through the gaps.

' _Oh no, she's back already? If she sees me like this again she'll freak out and give me another really long lecture on this and that and I won't be able to eat dinner on time and that means I won't have enough time to finish the physics homework'_

Tatsu glanced back and forth at the bathroom door and the short hallway that led to his room. His brain started to formulate dozens of bizarre plans to get to his room from his position behind the recliner, some of them included the use of everyday items like fishing rods and rubber ducks used in a way never seen before.

He shook his head free from the strange ideas and decided to improvise and use his instincts instead, so he vaulted himself onto the recliner he was hiding behind and a half a second later leaped on all fours onto the longer couch nearby, the soft marshmallow-like padding of the couches neutralized the sound of his landing. Then he slowly slithered himself off the comfortable material in the same manner as a leopard seal sliding off a slab of ice.

Still squatting on all fours, Tatsu's orange orbs flickered at the bathroom door to check for any changes. None. Reverting his focus back onto his task he still had a few meters to go. He gazed intensely at his bedroom door, his quest was about to come to an end. The last few strides had to be performed gracefully like a swan in a lake.

But...Tatsu being Tatsu his mind told him that doing that would cause to much noise so in the end he galloped the rest of the way like a chimpanzee.

And at last, he arrived at his destination now only one timber door away from his quiet little sanctuary. He sighed in relief, stood up, and placed his hand on the silver handle, the icy touch of the metal sent little satisfying shivers down his spine.

 ***GRAAAAWWW***

But his stomach had other plans, Tatsu groaned, he should've bought something to eat on the way home. With slumped shoulders, he turned his head back the way he came, unluckily for him to get to the kitchen he had to go past the bathroom and risk being found out. It was only roughly ten meters away but to him, it seemed like ten kilometers of the Earth's harshest terrain.

He narrowed his eyes and scanned the kitchen from his position. Then he spotted his target, on top of the kitchen counter rested a smooth glass bowl. Inside it contained two oranges, six bananas, one white peach, and an extremely out of place onion.

Suddenly using the momentum of swinging his arms back behind his head and he sprang backward off the ground. Stretching his whole body, he resembled an upside-down 'U' in midair. Then springing off his fingers and onto his toes, Tatsu performed several back handsprings across the apartment towards the kitchen. With one last flip, he landed next to the bowl of fruit on the balls of his feet allowing a soft landing.

Tatsu grinned and let out a silent hiss-like applaud to himself, "Success,"

Reaching out he plucked the peach from the bowl, he held it with both hands in front of his face, his flame-colored eyes sparkled like firecrackers as he admired and studied the plump fruit in his possession. A pastel pink heart-shaped orb with a miniature canyon running down one side, cloaked in a paper-thin layer of fuzz. The sweet aroma that the fruit emitted floated around the apartment, Tatsu couldn't wait for a second longer, still in his squatting position, he whipped his body around towards the sink and blasted the peach with water. Turning off the tap he hopped off the counter with the peach being steadily held in his mouth and landed on two feet on the ground. The boy walked towards the door to his room, feeling satisfied with the _'sidequest'_ he just finished.

But something felt off like he had forgotten something very important. The dark-haired boy froze.

"Tatsu!"

He had forgotten the very reason why he was being sneaky only moments ago. He slowly turned his head and body towards the source of the voice.

Standing behind him, glowing under the moonlight that came from the windows, with her arms crossed was an incredibly beautiful young woman with porcelain white skin and sapphire blue eyes. She wore a white towel around her body but even that couldn't hide her natural buxom body. Silky crimson hair flowed down to her thighs, loose bangs covered her forehead with two longer ones framing her face and rested in front of her collarbones. One stray strand of stuck out on top of her head.

Tatsu removed the peach from his mouth with a _'Pop'_ and quickly spun around with his back against the wall. A sheepish grin spread on his face as he nervously waved as he saw the stern look on her face.

"R-Ria-nee, y-you're home,"

Her piercing gaze didn't waver once as she walked up to the boy. Tatsu stared wide-eyed at the ground, afraid of any chance of eye contact with his adoptive sister. Rias now stood only inches away from his face, the black-haired boy peered over her bare shoulder, his eyes flickered from the wall to Rias, finding it harder and harder to avoid her gaze as she was only an inch shorter than himself. The peach in his hand slowly slipped out of his grip and rolled away.

Suddenly he felt his sister's soft palms on his dirt-stained cheeks squeezing them together and in the process lightly lifted his chin. The boy blinked confused at the situation, in the past when he came home in this state, Rias would get a terrifying look on her face before practically interrogating him to tell her who the culprit was before leaving in an attempt to hunt down the said person, each time, Tatsu had to physically pull her back. This time Rias only rolled his head around using her hands, examining every inch of his face and double-checking for any details she may have missed.

A minute went by and the crimson-haired woman released her grip and instead to Tatsu's surprise, started to fix his messy hair with her delicate fingers.

"Who was it this time?" Rias demanded, her voice was a mixture of a warming comfort and a blazing rage, "Was it Kenji again?"

Tatsu flinched upon hearing that name and his eyes automatically flicked down to the floor. His sister took notice of this and put a halt on fixing his hair, however, her fingers were still buried in his dark locks.

"This is already the eleventh time this year," Rias's gaze softened as she started to gently stroke his hair, "You have to do something,"

"I _am_ doing something," Tatsu responded, these words caused sparks of anger to form within Rias.

"No, you're not!" Rias slammed her palm against the wall next to the neck of her adoptive brother, Tatsu didn't flinch from the sudden movement but instead lowered his head even more until his bangs covered his eyes, "You used to love fighting when you were younger, this wouldn't be happening if you didn't stop!"

Upon hearing his sister's words, a memory from his childhood locked deep within Tatsu's conscience began to seep forward. Tatsu didn't reply as his mind began to slowly seal the memory. Not a single word came from him as his head hung low while his body leaned against the wall. Rias removed her hand from the wall and cupped Tatsu's cheeks with both hands, she leaned in closer and asked in a quiet voice

"Why, did you stop?"

"They'll go after them," Tatsu answered, his voice was near inaudible and his head was slightly up due to Rias' hands on his cheeks however his eyes were still covered by his bangs. "People like Kenji will go after them. Issei and the others, I've known them for a while now, under all their flaws they're good people, but there are some that can't see past those flaws and are more than willing to beat them to the ground because of it. But for their sake, I'm the one that gets hit, because I know that they wouldn't be able to take it, so in a way-,"

The dark-haired boy raised his head and looked directly into his sister's sapphire eyes, his lips curved up in a small smile.

"-I _am_ doing something."

Rias was left speechless from hearing her younger brother's response, she gazed back into his fiery eyes. Before, they burned bright and shined like the sun on a day with a clear sky. Now, they shined only due to the moonlight reflecting off of them, but at the same time they were dim and dark, like the final half-hour of dusk. The sparks of energy seemed to have faded from his orange orbs. His smile was an attempt to stop her from worrying, however, his eyes had unveiled his true emotions.

The brother-sister duo bathed under the lunar rays in silence until Tatsu gripped both of Rias' hands with his and gently removed them from his face, placing them by her side.

 ***DING***

Tatsu drew his phone from his pocket and glanced at the notification before slipping it back. He began to walk to the apartment door, leaving his crimson-haired sister to stare at his back with anxious eyes. After putting his shoes back on he stood and looked back at her.

"I'm okay Ria-nee, really," the flames in his eyes began to light up slightly, "It was my own decision to hang out with them, and I know it sounds wrong that I'm taking responsibility for their actions but I owe them quite a bit for being the only friends I have in this world, so," he opened the door and took one step out, "I'm fine with it,"

With that, Tatsu exited the apartment with Rias gazing at the door, her eyes and mind were still clouded with worry even though Tatsu told her not to. She shook her head to clear her thoughts when she realized that she was still in her bath towel. While heading back to her room to change, she noticed the small pink ball of fuzz on the ground next to a leg of the dining table. Bending down, Rias picked up the object and held it in one hand. Bite marks were visible on the top from when the black-haired boy held it in his teeth.

The redhead giggled at the bite marks, fond memories of her past filling her mind, "You've always been addicted to these, you never told anyone why,"

Suddenly, the door opened startling Rias, she looked back and saw Tatsu with his head sticking in.

"Just in case your thinking of hunting Kenji down, I just wanna say that his hand is probably in a really bad shape right now because I missed the timing to jump back when he punched me," Tatsu started to slowly retract his head back behind the door as he started to speak at a much faster pace, "So he's probably gonna be in the hospital for a while and won't be a threat for a while so it's okay, anyway I got some deliveries to make so I'll be back around eight, bye,"

Slamming the door shut again, Tatsu charged down the fire exit leaving Rias in the middle of the apartment with a baffled expression.

* * *

 **Kuoh Town, 7:25 pm**

It has been two hours since Tatsu had left to go on errand work, this wasn't his actual part-time job, it wasn't even a real job. It all started a few months ago he ran around Kuoh with simple business cards that he slipped into every mailbox he could find. What kind of business? Errands nothing more, nothing less. The most common jobs were food delivery and item delivery, however, the occasional pet-sitting and house cleaning would also pop up once or twice a month. The errand business became slightly famous in Kuoh, mainly because most of the adult populous recognized him for his willingness to do just about anything, just as long as it follows his moral compass.

During the middle of his final year of middle school, Tatsu decided that he would no longer use the money given to him by his adoptive family, so he could experience human life to the fullest. As a result, the errand business idea was formed since at the time, no one would accept a fifteen-year-old as a part-timer. The apartment that he lives in with Rias is the last thing the Gremory clan bought for him.

Currently, Tatsu is walking down an empty road with street lights on the side lighting up the area. In one hand he held two plastic bags, one red, one white, both containing food from different chains. In his other hand, he held his phone that was now used as a GPS. He started to walk faster as these were the last two deliveries he had to make for the day. Making a left turn, he found himself facing the stone fountain of the town's largest park.

"It's here right?" he murmured while looking at the map on his phone.

All of a sudden a round object zoomed towards his head, narrowly missing his nose. Tatsu whipped his head to the side and glared at the shadows between the trees. From within, eight people exited, one half wore black leather vests and the other half wore black biking jackets. A large bald man with an ear piercing in his right ear, wearing a leather vest stomped towards Tatsu, the man towering over him by three heads.

Tatsu held out the white bag, "The burgers right?"

The man snatched the bag from his hands and threw it back at into one of the lackey's arms. He himself looked down at the boy, his nostrils flaring as he glared at Tatsu.

' _Okaaay?'_ Tatsu raised an eyebrow.

The man cracked his knuckles above the dark-haired boy's head, however, Tatsu shrugged it off as he turned around to walk away from the park, the next destination already set in the GPS. He almost reached the exit when the gang of black leather surrounded him. Some of them holding metal pipes, one even had a soccer ball spinning on his finger. The bald man approached from behind, but the boy could hear his steps and spun around and looked up at him.

"Look, I don't want trouble so could you just let me pass?" Tatsu asked the large man who approached closer and closer, the scene reminded the black-haired boy of a rhino crashing through the savannah, "Oh, was the order wrong? You could always call the burger place and tell them...or I mean, I could do it instead if you want,"

The man once again stood directly in front of Tatsu, Tatsu could feel the man breathing warm air into his hair. The group surrounding them took two steps forward, tightening the circle even more.

Finally, the bald man spoke, "You broke Kenji's hand,"

' _Great'_ Tatsu mentally clicked his tongue, then he responded, "Wrong person, sorry,"

The large man's arms shot up and grabbed Tatsu by the collar and lifted him to his own height. A menacing scowl on his face he growled, "Don't bullshit me, he said it was you!"

"I'm telling you, it wasn't me, he probably broke it while punching a bag or something," Tatsu responded calmly.

"Orange hoodie, Kuoh Academy uniform," The man smirked wickedly, "Black hair and an extremely punchable face, he said it was you"

' _Your face is pretty punchable too'_

"I found him behind the gym with his right hand completely shattered, he said it was you,"

"Ok, ok you found me," the boy exhaled, "Wait, who are you anyway?"

"His cousin!," The man boomed while drawing his fist back ready to launch it into Tatsu's face.

' _There's no way to get out of this without fighting is there...No Tatsu! you said you won't fight unless it's absolutely necessary, but then again I have to deliver the last order by 7:45 otherwise I won't get paid'_

The large man roared as his fist neared Tatsu's head, the boy looked towards the incoming fist, for anyone else this hit would've been nothing more than a blur, but to Tatsu it was coming towards him in slow motion.

 ***CRUNCH***

The bald man shot backward like a bullet, rolling and bouncing across the concrete ground, crashing into the fountain. His gang stared at him, their eyes wide and jaws dropped. Tatsu landed on his feet with the white bag still in hand. The gang spun around with gritted teeth and weapons ready.

"How-How dare you!" they snarled.

Without another word they all charged with the intent to mortally wound the one who did this to their boss. Only that person wasn't Tatsu.

Standing in front of him was a tall lean person with platinum blonde hair spiked up to the side and seemed to be wearing the classic black and white waiter outfit. One hand was tucked comfortably in his pocket while the other was out in front as a closed-finger palm. The mysterious person had his back turned to him so Tatsu couldn't see the face.

The gang let out a battle cry as they began their assault. One swung a metal pipe at the blonde's head, only for him to dodge it by bending back a full ninety degrees. Using that momentum he kicked his right leg up into a perfect split, striking directly in the cervical spine of the thug, knocking him out instantly. This caused the rest of them to hesitate in their attack which gave the mystery person time to regain his original position.

Nevertheless, the others got over the shock and charged once again, what they didn't know is that this fight was already beginning to wrap up. Four men came from the side with metal pipes raised in the air, ready to club the person to death. Unfortunately for them, the mystery figure already saw through their attack.

The blonde raised his right knee to his chest level and the four attackers simultaneously fell to the ground, bodies piled on each other, all of them out cold. The remaining three thugs started to back away, fear plagued their body.

"W-W-What?" one stuttered.

"I d-didn't s-see anything," another cried.

"H-His leg didn't move at all," the last one said, his body shivering like it was the coldest day of winter.

Tatsu watched the scenario play out, the mysterious blonde piqued his interest and a long since burnt out spark had ignited a small flame within him once more.

' _Four kicks, one to the chin, two to the temple, and one to the forehead, then back to the chamber position, all in an instant''_

The blonde but his leg back on the ground and shifted his body to face the remnants of the gang, a second later, and the three members dashed away screaming for mercy and abandoning their fallen comrades.

As the park once again regained its silence, the mysterious person turned and faced Tatsu. Enhanced by the moonlight, sharp neon purple eyes pierced into the Tatsu's soul. It seemed as if all the world's lightning storms raged within the platinum blonde's orbs. Their appearances were almost polar opposites. The blonde put his hand back in his pocket and walked past Tatsu. The boy turned and watched him head away into the darkness.

"Hey, Thanks," Tatsu happily called after him.

The person froze, turning his head the side he retorted, "Don't get me wrong, I just can't stand to see such unfairness like eight people adults ganging up on one schoolboy, you're lucky that I was passing by, I got bored waiting for my delivery order,"

The blonde turned and resumed his walk away from the park. A sudden realization came to Tatsu, he ran up to the retreating person and held out the white bag.

"Did you order fried rice from that dumpling place near the arcade?" he asked.

The person cleared his throat, "Y-Yes,"

Tatsu handed the bag over to the blonde, as soon as it was in his possession he walked away, several paces faster than before leaving the black-haired boy standing in the middle of the park with the unconscious bodies of several thugs laying around him. Tatsu didn't notice the mysterious person's retreat as he was messaging the food chains to tell them that all deliveries have been completed.

While putting his phone back in his pocket he stuck out his open hand and said, "That'll be 10 yen for the delivery fee, thank you for using my service, I hope to of use to you again,"

Looking back up, the blonde was nowhere to be found, only the bodies on the ground were proof that he was here, Tatsu looked left and right while scratching the back of his neck, "Where'd he go?"

Quickly giving up the search, the boy shrugged and walked back to the fountain, where the body of the large bald leader lay. His upper body sprawled out on the stone rim of the structure, his lower body submerged in the fountain itself.

Along the way, the dark-haired boy came across the red plastic bag from earlier. He prodded the knocked out leader with his foot, no response. He set the red bag down beside the thug, rolled up his sleeves, and started to search the body for a wallet. He had to get the payment somehow.

' _This is legal right?'_

Fishing out a brown leather wallet, he took out a soggy 10 yen note and dropped the wallet on top of the body. Satisfied with the day's results, he lightly jogged away from the park, back to his home. Before stepping out the park's borders he turned and glanced in the direction of the fountain once more before leaving.

' _He received the delivery but didn't pay...so this should be okay...right?'_

 ***RING* *RING* *RING***

"Who is it now?" he murmured to himself while pulling the phone out of his pocket, on the screen in large white letters it read, _Issei_. "Does he need help with the homework?"

Pressing the green circle on the screen, he brought the device to his ear. "Yo,"

"Tatsu! Tatsu! Tatsu! You won't believe what happened to me today!" Issei's excited voice burst through the speakers, Tatsu winced and ripped the phone away from his ear before he could suffer any hearing damage.

"Calm down, Calm down, Calm down," Tatsu responded, carefully putting the device next to his ear again, "Deep breaths Issei, Deep breaths,"

He could hear his friend inhaling and exhaling heavily on the other side.

"You good?" Tatsu asked.

"Yeah, Yeah! I'm _really_ good!"

"Right, so what's up?"

"You wouldn't believe it bro,"

"Believe what?"

"Guess,"

"Ah...You completed the physics homework without my help,"

"Yea- Wait No! Keep guessing,"

Tatsu walked up to a vending machine next to a bus stop and slotted in a coin while racking up several guesses.

"You met that Pink Kamen Rider girl in real life?"

"As much as I'd love to, No,"

Tatsu retrieved a bottle of milk tea that dropped down, he held the phone between his ear and shoulder as he opened the bottle while walking away.

"You...You're gay,"

"Fuck You! No!"

"Just tell me Issei, I don't have all night," Tatsu grumbled, he took a mouthful of milk tea to calm himself.

"I got a Girlfriend!" Issei screamed in the speaker.

Tatsu's orange eyes widened and immediately started to choke on his drink the second he heard the news. After pounding on his chest with his fist like a rabid gorilla, he recovered enough to shout back.

"What?!"

* * *

 **Episode 2: Finish**

 **From on this will be the Author's Note will be located here. I wrote this story a while ago but never updated because, life. But now I have decided to continue this. Anyway, there are a few things I need to inform the readers.**

 _ **1:**_ **I hope that I can create Tatsu into a unique protagonist on this site.**

 _ **2:**_ **There will be one or two characters crossing over from another franchise but I'll do my best to entwine them into the lore.**

 _ **3:** _**This story will be seen through Tatsu's eyes most of the time.**

 _ **4:** _**Love interests are undecided. However, Tatsu will eventually have his own 'team'**

 _ **5:** _**In the previous chapter Kid Tatsu was interested in martial arts but in this chapter, it is said that he stopped fighting. It is quite a jump but everything will be explained later on, (including why the peach is his go-to food). This chapter served as a basic introduction to Tatsu.**

 **Anyway** **,** **That's All** **.**

 **Thank You For Reading**

 **Next Episode:** _**Black Turtle**_


	3. Black Turtle

_**Welcome Back, This story involves an Original Character therefore some parts of the canon, lore, and mythologies will be changed. Thank you for reading.**_

' _Italics' - OC's Thoughts_

 _ **Episode 3 - Black Turtle**_

* * *

"Guys, this is Yuuma," Issei said with the biggest grin of his life.

Matsuda and Motohama stood there, gawking in disbelief and glaring with envy at the sight of Issei holding hands with a stunningly beautiful girl. She had violet eyes and long raven hair that went down to her waist. Her large bust was accented by her slender body-type and cute face. She wore an unfamiliar dark red school uniform.

Tatsu was located behind the two perverts, his jaw had also dropped but only slightly. When Issei told him that he was now in a relationship last night, he honestly thought that it was going to be an average-looking female with the same interest in genitalia as his friend. Not...This. There must've been a comet shower recently that he missed.

"Hello, nice to meet you all," Yuuma chirped with a cute smile.

Issei walked up to the duo with a triumphant smirk, he leaned in and deliberately spoke into their ears, "Yes, she's my G-irl-friend," putting heavy emphasis on the "irl".

Tatsu smiled and folded his arms, _'Never thought he'd do it, I guess miracles do happen'_

Whatever else Issei was saying were drowned out from Tatsu's ears. Looking over his friend's shoulder he noticed Yuuma flashing an extremely menacing glare, filled to the top with nothing but malice towards Issei. It was only for a second but he definitely saw it. Glancing back at the trio, it seemed that none of them noticed the girl's scowl, it also seemed that the girl didn't notice Tatsu's cautious eyes. Something was off. His gaze flickered from Issei to Yuuma.

"Hey, Issei...," Tatsu started, his friend raised his head.

"What's up?"

In the corner of his eye, Tatsu felt the suspicious girl's hostile glare directed towards him, burning into his skin.

' _On second thought'_

"Nevermind, nothing important," he responded, Issei shrugged and continued to brag to his petrified friends.

Tatsu had only seen Issei this happy twice in their decade long friendship, the other time was when he acquired an ultra-rare, golden, holographic, full-art Charizard card when they were eight. Not wanting to see Issei's energized bliss crumble from his own suspicions, in the end Tatsu decided to keep this information to himself, for now.

"Let's go Yuuma," Issei said, walking past the three of them. Yuuma, now back to her innocent self, happily nodded, giving the remaining three a quick bow before joining Issei's side as they headed off to school.

"That traitor!" the two perverts cried with tears rolling down their cheeks.

Tatsu ignored them and slowly followed the new couple, now questioning his own suspicions. This 'Yuuma' girl seemed polite enough, maybe the malice from before was just his mind messing around due to slight fatigue, he _did_ wake up at 4:30 to start, and finish his physics homework...that was due in thirty minutes.

 _ **\- Use your eyes -**_

Suddenly, the black-haired boy stumbled back while clutching the sides of his head as it throbbed in pain. He could feel his heart pulsing through his skin, it felt as if a bolt of lightning just shot right through his skull. His eyelids were tightly clenched and a short, sharp burst of heat coursed through them.

Then, as quickly as it came, the pain dispersed, leaving a confused but recovered Tatsu standing in the middle of the street, with his hands still gripped tightly to his head. Ten seconds passed before he was absolutely sure that the intense migraine and burning sensation had finally left him, he rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. His eyes felt like antarctic ice compared to the blazing bonfire he experienced a second ago.

Looking back up, he saw that Issei and Yuuma were still walking and talking in front of him. But something was different, very, very different. Yuuma was taller than before, rivaling Issei in height, and her face looked like it matured three years compared to the babyface from earlier. These aspects were nothing compared to the elephant in the room. Feathered wings, as dark as a moonless night sky sprouted from Yuuma's back, and an eerie dark purple aura surrounded her.

' _What the!?'_

In a panicked state, he shut his eyes and pressed them into his palms for five seconds before slapping his cheeks twice. Upon reopening his eyes, Yuuma was back to her previous self, no wings, no face, nothing.

"Weird," Tatsu whispered to himself, ultimately deciding that what happened was due to him sleeping late and waking early.

Tatsu looked up at the clouds, _'But what was that voice just now? It sounded...hollow, and aggressive, like a growl'_

Shaking his head and slapping his cheeks, again. He threw away all his thoughts as he approached the school gates.

Unbeknownst to him, during that single second of him looking at Yuuma. His orange irises glowed and darkened into a scarlet red.

* * *

Several hours had passed since the encounter with Yuuma, it was now after school, and Tatsu sat quietly, legs crossed on the window sill in the Old School Building, the home base of the Occult Research Club led by his sister.

Throughout the entire day, he couldn't stop thinking about the raven-haired girl's malice filled eyes, her purple aura, and that ominous voice he had heard. There wasn't a minute where he didn't get flashbacks of the black wings coming out of Yuuma's back.

' _She couldn't be a fallen angel could she? Or was that just a hallucination…, If she is, then why is she so interested in Issei? Maybe she saw something in him that she liked'_ Tatsu closed his eyes and rested his chin on his hand in a thinking pose. _'A Fallen or not a Fallen, That is the question'_

"What's wrong with you?"

Tatsu opened one eye, leaning against the back of a couch and looking at him with an amused raised eyebrow, stood a handsome male around his age wearing the full boy's uniform.

He had short blonde hair and metallic blue eyes, with a mole under his left eye. Kiba Yuuto, the epitome of a pretty boy and as a result, granted him the position of the best-looking male in the school. But as far as the academy's female populace was concerned, Tatsu shared that title with Yuuto, even if the black-haired boy didn't want it. Earlier in the year they were seen walking together and were instantly dubbed as 'The Yin Yang Duo' due to their hair color, eye color, and clothing style being the complete opposite of each other. Black and Blonde, Orange and Blue, ...no mole and a mole.

The two first met years ago when Rias showed up at the front door with him cowering beside her one morning. Now, they were reasonably close friends, Tatsu came to respect Kiba as his sister's knight and trusted him fully.

"Nothing Kiba, just...contemplating about...things," Tatsu answered closing his eye again.

"What kind of things?"

"...Things,"

Kiba gave him a deadpanned expression, then, with a shrug and a sigh he waved goodbye and went to complete the day's contracts.

As Kiba left, a white-haired loli entered and headed straight to Rias who was currently sitting on a couch on the other side of the club room. Tatsu watched as they engaged in a conversation that he decided not to eavesdrop on.

Standing between them in a polite manner was an insanely attractive young woman with a voluptuous figure and violet eyes She had long silky black hair reaching down to her calves, tied up in a ponytail using an orange ribbon. Her hair was only a shade lighter than Tatsu's although it was barely noticeable in the dark environment of the room.

As Rias and the white-haired loli were talking, the ravenette noticed Tatsu watching them and flashed him a quick smile before putting her focus back on the two girls in front of her.

Tatsu hopped off the window sill and headed outside for some much needed fresh air. Stepping out the door he entwined his fingers and stretched his arms out before walking away from the building. Pondering about his suspicions had harshly lowered his performance in classes, to the point of all his teachers scolding for not paying attention. His eyes had also occasionally felt frighteningly warm throughout random points of the day.

He had to find a way to stop thinking about all this before he accidentally walks in front of a bullet train. Or...

"Ah," Tatsu let out a short cry.

Running into an oak tree. The boy rubbed his forehead and hissed in annoyance. He raised his head to see what he just smacked into. At first, the structure was a little imposing, its broad coffee-colored trunk reached out to the sky. A lush dome of leaves nestled into the hundreds of branches, creating a large natural umbrella that provided a cool shaded area below it. Small rays of sunlight peered through gaps made by leaves that fell to the ground. A couple of sparrows landed on a low branch, one chirped a variety of notes while its companion began to preen itself.

A small gray furred squirrel bounded out from the nearby shrubs. It raised its head sniffing the air for a moment, it then pounced onto the tree, climbing high into the leaves. A group of butterflies, ranging from yellow to white, danced around the bottom of the trunk. A soft breeze blew by, the leaves gently rustled and this calming sound made Tatsu smile. His mind was no longer cramped with repetitive thoughts. Without realizing, Tatsu had walked up to the large oak and placed his palm on the rough wooden surface.

"It's so peaceful," he whispered.

As he admired every feature of the oak tree, he suddenly remembered the events from last night. That mysterious white-haired individual who took four people out with one leg in half a millisecond. Just thinking about it made Tatsu's heart race and his left hand which was by his side, unconsciously twitched.

Sliding his backpack off and placing it by the trunk, he turned around, facing away from the tree. The whistle of the wind died down, the sparrows immediately halted their preening and diverted their attention towards the boy. The squirrel had stopped in its tracks, perching itself on a higher branch, silently watching. Even the butterflies had landed in a line across a lower branch. All of them seemed to be anticipating something as the air stilled.

It seemed like time had just stopped, alive or not, nothing dared to move. Tatsu closed his eyes, his left foot shifted forward, and turned his upper body slightly to the right.

' _How did he do it?'_ Tatsu wondered, _'Oh that's right, the first was a_ _ **Straight-Up Kick**_ _'_

He lifted his knee, pausing just below his chest.

' _No, it wasn't a Straight-up Kick, it was…'_ From the halted position, he flicked his lower leg out in front. His legs were now in a perfect one hundred and fifty degree angle. _'A_ _ **High Snap Kick**_ _'_

Without putting his foot down he continued, _'Then…'_

He turned his right foot sideways and kicked across with his heel with a slight bend in the knee.

' _A_ _ **Hook Kick**_ _, followed by…'_

Then by he opened his hips, only for his lower leg to snap forward again, pivoting his foot in midair for his toes to face upwards.

' _An_ _ **Inward Crescent**_ _, and finally…'_

While breathing in, he slowly raised the same leg high above his head. He could feel his knee buried into his shoulder as he stood there in a perfect standing split. Tatsu hovered both hands around his calf muscle in a manner to hold it up in case it teetered. But from a bystander's viewpoint, it looked more as if he was winding it up.

' _..._ _ **Axe**_ _'_

Releasing his hands, his extended leg dropped downward faster than the eye could blink. The action caused a small shockwave which blew away all the dust, dirt, pebbles, and dead leaves below it. Nearing the ground, he tilted his foot and pointed his toes forward, scraping the ball of his kicking foot across the ground and swiftly bringing it back up to the starting knee-to-chest chamber position.

"So he uses _that_ style," Tatsu murmured.

Lowering his leg, he opened his eyes and went to retrieve his backpack. He only threw four kicks but Tatsu left the premise in much higher spirits than before. It was only four kicks and his heart already begun pumping with excitement.

As he was walking away, his crimson-haired sister was secretly watching him the entire time from the window, smiling from what she just witnessed.

* * *

 **Apartment, 8 pm**

It was cool, the wooden study desk in Tatsu's room was cool. A nice, comfortable, chilly temperature to touch. With his cheek planted firmly on the desk and making motorboat noises with his lips, Tatsu, stared tiredly at his pen which he drummed on the open notebook beside him.

"Whyyy," he groaned, "Why'd we have to start Quantum Physics todayyy?"

His procrastination continued for another ten minutes, and now he couldn't take it anymore. Slamming both palms on the desk, he jumped onto his feet and yelled.

"I want juice!"

Whipping his whole body around he started to march towards the door. He didn't even get to take his first step as he slammed his shin right into one of the edges of his desk's legs. Tatsu flinched from the sudden impact and resulted in bouncing three steps forward to regain proper footing. The small tremor he created, shook both his desk and the tall bookshelf placed right beside it. From the top of the bookshelf, something rectangular fell down and conveniently, landed right into Tatsu's hands, albeit it did bounce off a couple of times before the boy actually held it.

"Huh?" he flipped it around and gasped, "This is…"

The object was a dusty framed photo the size of a laptop screen, several shakes, and wipes later, the majority of the photo was visible. It was a picture of a group of people in all different shapes and sizes wearing gray martial arts robes with a black sash tied around the waist, they were lined up behind each other in three rows.

In the front and center of the photo was an old man with a surprisingly athletic body. He had a long, gray beard and mustache that seemingly merged together, reaching down to his chest. His gray hair was tied up in a man bun using a black ribbon. Two long bangs streaked down beside his dark brown eyes. In the photo, his right hand was ruffling the jet-black hair of a little boy, around seven years of age.

The little boy had large, gleaming amber eyes and a big toothy grin on his face. His left arm was stretched out in front while holding up the V-sign. Yes, this little boy was Tatsu ten years ago.

There was one other child in the photo, a girl with long silky black hair and amber golden eyes. One arm was latched around Kid Tatsu's neck resulting in their cheeks being pressed together and her other arm was outstretched, also holding up a V-sign while she winked.

"...Grandpa," Tatsu whispered, his voice held a thick layer of regret, "It's been a while huh,"

He stood there, staring at the photo for what felt like an eternity, every face brought him a wave of hidden memories and mixed emotions. Only the loud notification alarm of his phone shattered his trance. Placing the photo face-down on the desk, he went over to check the message. It was just Issei texting him, telling him that he has a date with Yuuma this coming Sunday.

Tossing the phone to the side, Tatsu flopped face-first onto his bed. The scent of comfort lingered over the pillow and covers, successfully absorbing the boy into the soft mattress. However, images of Yuuma with her wings and aura once again crossed his mind. With a heavy sigh, he heaved himself off the bed and snatched up the phone to send a text to Issei. Perhaps he could finally clear his mind if he just warned his friend. But how should he word this?

 _[Issei ur girlfriend is a bird]_

"No that doesn't work,"

 _[Be careful bro, I think ur gf is a deadly crow youkai]_

"Agh, he'll probably think that I'm just jealous of him getting a girlfriend before me,"

 _[Run Issei! Ur gf is actually a fallen angel and is gonna kill u with a shiny spear]_

"Nah, too straightforward,"

Tatsu then started typing his fourth variation when he stopped to think for a bit, before promptly deleting it.

"This is getting ridiculous," he mumbled, chucking the phone onto his chair.

Throwing his body back he cocooned himself using his quilt, deciding that he'll just keep an eye on the couple during their date on Sunday. Repeatedly telling himself that it wasn't stalking if it's for security, and it isn't an invasion of privacy if he's a bodyguard, albeit from afar. Soon all thoughts were scattered as he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

 **Kuoh Town, Midday**

And Sunday couldn't have arrived soon enough. A couple of hours had passed since Issei and Yuuma's date started. The two had gone through every single shop that they came across and are currently searching for a place to eat. Finally, they settled on going to a quaint little cafe a little ways away from the plaza.

Witnessing this from his hiding spot, behind a bus stop sign on the other side of the street the cafe was located on. The orange-eyed boy collapsed onto one of the waiting area's benches, mentally exhausted from an excruciating two hours of trailing the couple. He had been watching them since the moment they met up outside the train station and discreetly followed them into a few of the bigger shops they entered. He even lost sight of them when they entered the more popular areas due to the enormous lunch-time crowds, it was only thanks to their predictable destinations that allowed Tatsu to locate them again. This entire ordeal was at least twenty times more tedious than he originally thought.

"Never...again…" he told himself, and for the next forty-five minutes, he sat there arms folded, legs crossed and with his hood pulled up. Observing. This would be the one and _only_ time he'd do this.

Soon Issei and Yuuma left the cafe and resumed their schedule of mostly window shopping. At this point Tatsu's suspicions were beginning to fade, the raven-haired girl had been harmless the whole day. Maybe she honestly did just want to date his friend. Even if she was a part of the supernatural world, interspecies mingling was known to be a thing, and if history is accurate, pretty popular as well.

Sighing, the black-haired boy hopped off the seat, looking both ways before crossing onto their side of the street right next to the cafe the exited. Bodyguard duty has once again begun. Suddenly the couple stopped to look into the window of a bakery two stores away from the cafe. The unexpected halt caught Tatsu off guard, almost causing him to trip over his own feet. He had to take cover, and fast. Rapidly glancing from left to right he chose his new hiding spot. Right behind the narrow trunk of one of the many thin trees planted along the sidewalk. With his bright orange hoodie and face sweating comically, he stood out like a sore thumb. Not his finest hour.

A door jingled behind him, but he was too focused on not getting caught to notice.

Then a cool, calm voice spoke from his left.

"What are you doing?"

"GAH!"

Without looking and with incredible speed, a startled instinct-driven Tatsu whipped his leg out and around in a hook kick. The person beside him blocked the unintended attack with an open palm. In an instant a whirlwind, the size of a streetlight spun to life behind them, and luckily it went unnoticed.

' _...Oh, shit'_ The color from Tatsu's face drained as the thought of accidentally killing a bystander filled his mind. He spun around and immediately started to rapidly bow in an apologetic manner.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I'll pay for your hospital bills, I'm so sorry," His bows were so fast that he didn't even see the person he struck. In Tatsu's eyes, right now the world was an up and down blur.

"Um, I'm...ok," the person lightly chuckled while sweatdropping at the black-haired teen's peculiar action.

"Oh really? Then that's good," Relief washed over him as he straightened back up and scratched his cheek. Now the boy could see the person clearly, and vice versa.

Waiter uniform, platinum-blonde hair, and electric purple eyes.

"It's you!" they simultaneously exclaimed.

* * *

The clouds were dyed a dusty yellow and warm colors overtook the light blue sky. With the moon visible, the sun began to sink below the distant mountain range as its countless cousins started to gleam in the distance.

Tatsu leaned over a smooth concrete railing, the chilly high altitude breeze tickled his nose and ruffled his hair. The bustling town of Kuoh began the daily transition into night mode below. The sea of people and vehicles flowed through the maze of streets and roads. Many were returning home after a long day of studying or work, others went out for dinner in groups as a way to end the weekend and celebrate the coming of a new week, full of opportunity.

Chatter drifted around him, people of different ages and walks of life gathered around birchwood tables, sitting on cushioned birchwood chairs that were placed upon fake lime-green grass. All while drinking out of a tall glass cup and consuming small foods as they gossiped about the world. His stomach growled every time a new scent reached his nose. He almost didn't pick up the sound of footsteps approaching him.

"Here,"

A medium-sized plastic cup with a domed lid was placed next to him, the cup contained golden yellow liquid and small black pearls that rested at the bottom. A thick straw already poked through the top.

"Thanks," Tatsu held the cup and took a sip of the mango flavored bubble tea. He would've preferred to munch on the fruit itself but this wasn't bad.

"Don't mention it, I forgot to give you the errand fee that night so, I hope this will suffice," said the platinum-blonde.

Tatsu responded with a nod, not fully paying attention to what the man beside him was saying due him trying to drink without sucking up any tapioca pearls. The man rested his elbows on the railing and leaned his back onto it. Another cool breeze whistled across the rooftop.

"So, why do you run around doing deliveries for everyone?" the blonde asked, "Especially if things like _that_ can happen," Referring to the incident from the other night.

"Well...why do you work part-time at two places?" Tatsu responded, now playing with the straw.

The blonde smirked, "Heh, I guess money is the only right answer for young people like us,"

A few minutes ticked by, and the voices of the costumers started to rise as more of them arrived. The two males zoned out and soaked in the noisy atmosphere, it was strangely comforting. The background chatter felt similar to the rhythmic pit-a-pat of a night of heavy rain.

"I want my family to acknowledge me," the older male was once again the first to speak. Tatsu's fiery eyes shifted towards him.

"They kicked me out when I was little, so for all these years I've been wondering why. What did I do? What did a five-year-old boy do wrong? I think I might've found the answer but still, I want to hear their side of the story, and the only way that'll happen is if they recognize me as an individual, as an equal. And for that to happen, I need lots of money and power. And when the day comes, and they hear of my accomplishments, I want them...to come searching for me, the exiled son of -"

The platinum-blonde stopped himself, he turned to Tatsu and laughed bashfully, "I'm sorry, I got carried away, guess there were some things I needed to get off my chest,"

"No...it's fine," The younger male responded while looking out at the scenery.

His gaze was directed towards the setting sun, now half under the horizon. The sky and clouds accompanying it were crimson red, reminding him of a certain teenage girl that lives with him.

"I want to support my sister's dreams," Tatsu cheerfully stated. It was now the older male's turn to turn his head.

"For seventeen years, she's never stopped looking out for me. There's only a handful of memories that she doesn't appear in, and only now, have I realized..."

The boy's voice started to get more solemn.

"...How hard it must've been for her. How stressful did it get? How many sleepless nights did she have? How many times has she cried by herself? How much of her happiness did she sacrifice...for mine? Now it's my turn to do the sacrificing so I guess, by prioritizing her dreams over mine, it's my own way of saying 'Thank You' and 'I'm Sorry'. And maybe by the time we're almost done, she would've found a husband to rely on, and then, I would've found my own path,"

The blonde stared at him in deep thought, in a way they were similar. They both seek redemption to their family, albeit for a different reason. One wants an apology for the things _they_ have done, while the other wants to apologize for the things _he_ has done.

"If that path shows itself earlier than predicted, then remember. Don't hesitate to take it," the older male said, "Because if you don't, you might regret it for the rest of your life,"

Tatsu responded with a nod, taking another sip from his drink. Once again the breeze blew by, this time lasting longer than before. Their clothes and hair fluttered with the wind.

"Hey," Tatsu started.

"Hm?"

"You use Taekkyeon don't you," the boy turned his body to face the older male, looking him directly in the eyes.

The blonde was visibly taken aback from the boy's statement. _'H-How does he know? The only time...wait, could he-?. Was he able to see my kicks?'_

As his purple eyes met the younger's orange ones, he saw mostly curiosity in them with a faint glow of resolve. With a slight smirk he responded.

"Yeah, I trained in that style for a bit,"

"I knew it!" Tatsu cried out happily, "You don't see the old styles used much nowadays. You must've trained really hard if you can kick that fast,"

"It wasn't that fast," the blonde chuckled, "Besides wasn't your kick faster?"

Tatsu tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow, "My, kick?"

"The one from before, you almost sliced open my chin,"

The younger's face fell slightly, remembering the incident from earlier. "Oh, that. I'm really sorry about that, I didn't know my body would react like that,"

"That's normal for people like us," the blonde nonchalantly responded.

"People like us?"

"Martial Artists, you are one, aren't you?"

His eyes widened when he heard that term, the small flame within Tatsu's mind started to flicker back to life. His heart pumped blood faster than before, an all too familiar tingling sensation ran down his spine and all the muscles in his body started to twitch. It took him a minute to get his body back under control by tensing all muscles at once and then letting it go. It felt like curing a full-body hiccup.

"I-I used to," he managed to stutter out, "...Not anymore,"

"Used to? Not anymore? What happened? Did a wizard seal it away?" the blonde joked.

Tatsu turned to lean against the railing by placing his forearms on the cold concrete and gazed down at the streets below. "I'd...rather not talk about it,"

"Then that's your decision and I respect it," the blonde turned around and mimicked the boy's posture.

The two watched in silence as the last sliver of sunlight sunk under the distant mountains, and as the moon took its throne in the sky.

"Have you ever thought about, if one day, your family and friends are in trouble, and only your martial arts can save them?" the blonde suddenly asks, his tone more serious than before.

The black-haired boy thought about it before he shook his head. _'Not anymore.'_

"I forgot how to fight," said the younger male, sheepishly scratching his temple. He didn't see it but the blonde shot him a judgemental look.

"A wizard can't seal it off you know," the older male gazed up at the first stars, "Not even the strongest sealing magic can, the best it can do is play mind games with you. You'll only think you can't fight anymore,"

"Your point?" Tatsu asked, not really paying attention.

"Your mind may forget, but your body will not," standing up straight and turning around, the blonde slid his hands into his pockets, "Even if it was accidental, it was evident when you kicked me today, I haven't seen someone with such perfect form in a while,"

The older male saw another man around his age in a waiter uniform waving at him while cleaning some cups with a towel, beckoning him to hurry up and join him behind the counter.

Pushing off the railing, the platinum-blonde headed back to work but not before leaving Tatsu a few words.

"No one leaves the martial world forever,"

…

' _No one leaves the martial world forever'_

…

…

As the words repeated itself in his mind, an epiphany came to him. He had heard this saying before. But when?

The boy swiftly spun around and exclaimed, "Wait!"

The blonde froze.

"What's your name?"

He waved his backhand and continued walking, " _Reiz_."

Tatsu watched as he disappeared into the crowd while the lights of the rooftop cafe were turned on. The buildings surrounding the place quickly followed suit and the moonlight no longer had a presence in Kuoh as it soon became illuminated from electricity.

After another glance at the night view of the town, he placed the now semi-empty plastic cup, (he didn't consume any of the pearls), on a nearby wooden stool and swiftly left the rooftop.

The elevator down was unusually cramped, so instead Tatsu chose to gallop down the twenty flights of stairs. In his mind, it was the quickest way down. On the journey home, it echoed countless times in his mind.

' _No one...leaves the Martial World forever'_.

* * *

 **Next Day, Kuoh Academy**

The rhythmic tapping and scratching of chalk on the blackboard filled the classroom. The students were focused on copying down formulas written up by their teacher. One could clearly hear the breathing of the person sat next to them in the silence.

 **DING! DING! DING!**

Luckily for the students, the bell signaled a teacher switch meaning they could finally move on from Second Year Highschool Chemistry. For today at least.

As soon as the teacher left the room, the class was free to have a five-minute break. Issei shook his hand violently to get the blood pumping back. He turned and saw Tatsu also recuperating his hand's blood flow, unlike Issei, the black-haired teen used a more 'peaceful' approach, he was rolling his wrist followed by bending his hand as far back as possible.

Seeing this as the perfect opportunity, Issei leaned over and tapped his friend on the shoulder, successfully getting his attention.

"I need to ask you a question," he told him, "It's kinda bothering me,"

"What is it?"

"Not here," Issei whispered, "If those two hear about me talking about this again, they'll never stop mocking me about it," He used his thumb to gesture at his two pervert friends, already sitting together, sharing questionable magazine.

Tatsu simply nodded and the two childhood friends exited the classroom, the corridor was quite populated with students from both their class and other classes taking a break outside so the duo just stood next to the door.

"So what's up?"

"Do you remember Yuuma?" Issei asked, his tone was more serious than what Tatsu was used to so it slightly surprised him, "From last Friday,"

Tatsu didn't see where he was going with this, and let out a dragged out, "Yeaah?"

Issei's face immediately brightened up, "So _you_ remember, great I thought I was going crazy,"

Tatsu raised an eyebrow, "Why? What happened to Yuuma?"

"That's the thing I don't know," Issei whisper-shouted, whipping out his phone and showing Tatsu the screen, "This morning I woke up from this really strange dream that she appeared in, and when I went to text her, her contacts were gone, poof! Disappeared! Like she never existed,"

"What sort of dream?" the black-haired teen asked, narrowing his eyes.

"It was crazy! I was on a date with her, it was going really well and then when we were walking in the park, she leaned in close so I thought she was going for a kiss, but then she asked me, "Will you die for me?" and then suddenly giant black wings came out of her back, and she also changed into this black stripper outfit,"

' _Black Wings!'_ Tatsu's mind yelled.

"And then, that wasn't the craziest part," Issei continued, still whisper-shouting, "She said something about me being too dangerous then threw a shiny spear into my stomach and flew away. Then I was lying on the ground dying, and in my pocket, I pulled out this flyer that I got from a cosplayer earlier in the day. Then _your_ sister appeared out of nowhere,"

His orange eyes widened, as his mind finished processing everything Issei was saying.

"Anything else?" Tatsu asked.

"No that's where my dream ended," Issei replied, "But it can't be all a dream because you remember her, you remember Yuuma,"

Tatsu mentally kicked himself ten thousand times, he should've trusted his intuition and kept a closer eye on them, he should've checked up on them after he left the rooftop yesterday. Now his best friend died. Or, had died.

' _Wait...If he's still alive then that means…'_

"You mentioned my sister in your dream,"

Issei nodded, "Yeah, at the last couple of minutes she appeared saying something like, "You now work for me," something like that,"

Tatsu stared into his friend's brown eyes, then placed his hand on his shoulder and gave an eye-smile. "It's fine, maybe Yuuma dropped her phone somewhere and someone else picked it up for parts,"

"What about my dream?"

"The plots from all those doujin you read merged together, I dunno, it's just a dream in the end," the black-haired teen replied pushing Issei back into the classroom, before turning around and walking off.

"Wait where are you going?" Issei called out.

"Bathroom," Tatsu replied.

However, the bathroom was the last place he was going, in deep thought he let his legs decide his destination.

' _Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it! I was right, All along I was right, I was right all along, All along I was right, I was right! Yuuma is a fallen angel! I even saw her wings! But noooo I just had to let that pass as a suspicion! I should've trusted myself! I should've done more! I should've done something when I had the chance! And now, Issei died, has died, revived, into a devil, under Ria-nee! How could this happen? She never showed interest in him...maybe! Did I miscalculate something? What was I even supposed to calculate? But then again a couple thousand of hang out time with the bro doesn't sound that bad-'_

 **WHAM**

"Aah," Tatsu stumbled back, looking up and around while rubbing his forehead he realized he unconsciously trekked into the woods near the Old School Building. And that he ran into a tree...again.

He looked up into the pear-green canopy, specks of sunlight leaked through, lighting up the undergrowth. The school bell rang behind him, but he didn't care.

Raising his fist, he glared at the trunk of the tree he ran into. He focused his gaze to the center of the trunk and pulled his fist back, ready to strike.

 **CRACK**

Tatsu flew to the side from the force of punching himself in the cheek, he barely stopped himself from falling on the ground by quickly regaining his footing. His tightly clenched fist trembled. He could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.

"It's all my fault," he whispered. His dark bangs covered his eyes as he dipped his head. "Just like _that_ time, it's all my fault,"

Tatsu stood still as stone within the small legion of trees. Two voices echoed in his mind.

" _Have you ever thought about, if one day, your family and friends are in trouble, and only your martial arts can save them?"_

" _You used to love fighting when you were younger, this wouldn't be happening if you didn't stop!"_

"When I was younger…my martial arts," Tatsu murmured, he looked down at his open shivering palms, "My martial arts...I could've stopped Yuuma if I was the same as before,"

He trudged back to the tree he ran into, tears brimmed his eyes as he hit and pressed his forehead against the tough bumpy trunk. He hadn't felt this sense of hopelessness in a long time. His eyes could no longer retain his tears and thew slowly rolled down his cheeks, with every breath he repeatedly punched the tree with one hand, however his fists held no power.

"This...This is all because I forgot...I chose to forget...everything...that I could do, everything. Everything I was taught," from his standing position he fell onto both knees, dragging his head down the bark.

Three minutes felt like three hours, Tatsu calmed down slightly, he had no more tears left but remained kneeling on the ground. He remained in that position, perfectly still, the fire in his orange eyes were near extinguished as he just stared forward, blinking only occasionally. In his life, there was only one other time he felt this kind of despair, it was after the incident that made him swear to himself never to fight again and sealed off his abilities. Both times he nearly lost someone he cared about, due to his own mistakes.

…

…

…

He finally spoke but in a hushed tone, "The old me could've done it easily, he would've known that she was a fallen angel all along, but what about me now. I wonder if I can still sense energy,"

Tatsu closed his eyes and waited. And waited. And waited. In the end, nothing.

"Why?" he stomped out his right leg and anchored his hand on the knee.

"Why?" using his hand, he pushed himself off the ground. Now standing up straight with his bangs still covering his eyes.

"Can't I even do the most basic technique?!" He spat, clenching his fists until they shivered like they were being exposed to sub-zero temperatures, "Can't I even do...the first thing I was taught!"

"WHY?!" He yelled, raising his head.

His right leg ripped through the air. The entire section of woods on the right side instantly snapped back from the force of the wind created by his kick. Giving the illusion that all trees suddenly went limp.

 **SLASH**

Tatsu, in his rage spike, performed a **High Roundhouse Kick** to the tree in front of him, completely slicing off the entire top half and sent it flying high into the air. Only a diagonally cut stump remained.

However, the black-haired teen didn't see the damage he caused as he followed the momentum of his kick and ended up spinning around, facing away from the stump. With a huff, he left the woods and decided to take a nap in the Old School Building to relax his mind. Truth be told, he did feel much more calmer after attacking the poor tree. As for where the top half landed, well, the soccer club is in for a bit of a surprise.

* * *

After a quick recharge on one of the Clubroom's couches, Tatsu had chosen to skip the rest of the day as there were only a couple hours of school left. So, he sprawled out in the center of his sister's desk, for him it was the most comfortable spot but he could only sit on the desk whenever Rias wasn't around. The last time he did it in her presence, he received three hundred magic-infused spanks when he arrived home. He shuddered upon remembering the punishment.

Looking up at the ceiling, he suddenly remembered some of the words the man named 'Reiz' told him.

' _You'll only think you can't fight anymore, your mind may forget, but your body will not'_

"My mind may forget," Tatsu repeated, "But my body will not,"

He sat up and brought his legs into a crossed position. He grabbed on foot, placing it on the thigh of the other leg, then did the same for the other foot. Now sitting in a full lotus position. Straightening his back, he put loosely clenched fists on his knees and closed his eyes.

With his mind clearer than before, he wanted to reattempt the sensing technique that he failed before. Tatsu was sure that it wasn't impossible, after all, no one forgets a basic. The words from Reiz seemed to reignite a feeling locked deep within his soul. All Tatsu had to do now, is to become the key to unlocking it.

For the next hour, Tatsu meditated on the desk. His breath was slow and steady, and his heart rate slowed. A memory from his childhood came floating forward from the back of his mind.

" _Remember my boy, use all six senses at once, only then will you be able to sense the life force of everything around you,"_

" _Life...force?"_

" _Yes, here we call it 'Chi', we train to harness the power of chi and to preserve it,"_

" _Doesn't everyone just call it Senjutsu?"_

" _No my boy, Chi and Senjutsu are as similar as a rock and a stone, but as different as the sun and the moon,"_

" _Sooo, what's the difference?"_

" _I will tell you when you are a bit older. For now, just concentrate on your ability to sense, no need to rush, we have plenty of time,"_

"All senses at once, just like what grandpa told me," with his eyes still shut.

Tatsu relaxed the muscles in his body and inhaled deeply. As he exhaled, his energy pulsated, invisible waves soared around him, passing through the walls without interruption.

Almost instantly he picked up the life energy of all the small animals living in the woods outside, even the insects that crawled all over the academy grounds were detected. A large cluster of energy was crammed inside the normal school building, it was the students and teachers. Several higher than normal levels were picked up, Tatsu smiled to himself as he knew exactly who they belonged to.

Tatsu was drawing in every bit of power he could sense, like the vibrations returning to a spider on an intricate 3D web. From a flock of birds that flew by in the sky, to his fingertips, from the first years in swimming class, down to his toes. Everything carefully connecting to every nerve on a central body. No longer was he like a spider on a web.

' _Absorbing in every bit of information around me, through my roots that are spread throughout the earth, and through my crown of leaves wavering in the sky, ...I am...a tree'_

Suddenly, like a titan sized roaring thundercloud, one individual's levels overshadowed every other energy signature in the entire town by a staggering amount.

Tatsu's fiery eyes shot open the second he sensed the abnormal levels. In front of him stood a man slightly taller than the teen wearing an all-black business suit with his hands in the pocket of his trousers. His pupils were an arctic silver with dark oval irises, his hair matched Tatsu's in color, and had two triangular tufts sticking out from the top of his head, resembling ears.

"It's been a while," he said with a small smile, lowering his energy down to the level of a normal human.

"What are you doing here?" Tatsu demanded, hopping off and standing in front of the desk.

The man hunched over, clasped his hand on his chest, and let out an exaggerated cry of disbelief, "Ah~, can't a senior come to visit his junior once in a while?"

Tatsu rolled his eyes, he knew that it was just an act, there was an underlying reason for the man's sudden appearance, thanks to previous experiences. "What do you want, _Huvul_?"

Recovering from his false distress, the man named Huvul straightened his back and grinned while sliding his fingers back into his pockets, leaving the thumb resting outside.

"Now, now Tatsu, we trained under the same master, albeit when you came I'd already graduated but that doesn't really matter, so by tradition, you must address me as Shi Xiong, Senpai, or Sunbae-nim, and not by my name,"

"You do remember that we don't need to use those titles when we're within this realm right?"

"So you _do_ remember the tenants," Huvul's sly grin never fell as he continued, "Then you should remember that all new graduates must go through a decade of annual examinations,"

Tatsu glared at Huvul, his orange pupils began to glow, "Except I didn't graduate, I still had another ten years of training, if you remember correctly, I was exiled,"

Huvul met the teen's gaze, to him, Tatsu wasn't a threat. To him, his glare felt similar to a cub sizing up, pretending to be a full-grown tiger. "Graduates also refer to anyone that has left, whether on good terms, or bad. You don't have a choice in this, besides, I let you off last two years, all your passes have been used up."

Tatsu didn't respond, instead, he kept staring into the older male's silver eyes. At last he gave up and let out a sigh. "Fine, let's just get this over with, I have class," the last bit was a half-lie, he wasn't planning on going back to class but he still had to retrieve his backpack from the classroom.

"Excellent," Huvul raised his left hand to his head height directly beside him. Then with one swift slice and straight line of scarlet flames was created. The line opened up into a man-sized black hole with a red outline. The silver-eyed man stepped through, and Tatsu followed. The moment the two males disappeared through the portal, it blipped out of existence, leaving the clubroom silent and empty, as if no one was ever here.

* * *

 **Kuoh Outskirts**

On an ancient dirt path in the center of a forest in the mountains, hidden away from regular civilians, the portal reappeared and the two stepped out. Although he had traveled by similar methods in the past, Tatsu was surprised at how fast this portal was. Magic circles usually took around five seconds to take someone from one place to another. This black hole his senior created barely even took a second, it was just like taking a single step and then he was somewhere else.

Huvul had already moved forward several steps ahead of him on the trail when he turned around to face the black-haired teen.

"So what's the examination topic?" Tatsu asked.

"Sparring, force me to use my left arm and the examination will be a success,"

Tatsu huffed, he had no intention of fighting again as that would break the promise he made. The only reason he practiced sensing energy earlier was that the thought of not being able to do something so basic, something that in the past came naturally to him, annoyed him to a great extent.

But he did consider training again, and sparring is a form of training and training, doesn't count as fighting...right? Tatsu mentally scratched his head, not really sure of what to do. But in the end, he took off his blazer and draped it on a rock nearby.

' _This is just training, this is just training, this is just training'_ he repeatedly told himself. And after a minute of fully stretching his limbs, hips, and neck, he stood several paces in front of Huvul. Nervous was a slight understatement to describe the teen's current state, it had been two full years since the last time he fought and he was beginning to doubt if he could still remember everything.

' _Trust in your body Tatsu'_ He thought while hopping one leg then switching to the other, _'Trust in your body'_

"Shall we begin?" Huvul asked with a smirk as he rearranged his footing, his feet were now shoulder-width apart with the right foot being in front of the left.

Tatsu responded with a nod, he closed his eyes and shifted his own feet to a wider stance with bent knees. He raised his right arm above his head and lowered the left arm to below his knees. Then he drew a large circle in the air ending it with both his palms in the center of the unseen circle which was in front of his chest. His right palm faced up while his left faced down, he tapped them together twice. The sound from the first tap resonated through the forest, the second tap was quiet, but from the contact. Mist started to form around Tatsu's hands and legs.

 **[ The 4 Guardians: First Guardian - Xuanwu (Black Turtle) ]**

The smirk on Huvul's face grew wider at the sight of the technique the younger male was using. Tatsu shifted his left foot forward, drawing a semi-circle in the dirt as a result. He was now standing with his shoulder facing the silver-eyed male. His left hand formed a closed-finger palm while his right hand formed a fist, the former was extended from his body at his hip level, while the latter was protecting his face.

"The examination starts," Huvul snapped his fingers., "Now,"

Tatsu immediately vanished and reappeared in the air behind Huvul, bringing down his mist-coated leg in a diagonal slicing motion, a **Brazilian Kick**. Unfortunately for him, the older male easily avoided it by ducking.

Without giving Huvul any time to recover, Tatsu used the downward momentum of the kick to land on the ground and continued using the power from his failed kick that landed on the ground to twist around, and shifted his balance to that same leg. In the same split second he regained balance, he used his other leg to perform a swift low double sweep.

Huvul once again dodged the assault by flipping backward and landing behind the attacking teen, a curious to see what he would do next. Not wasting the energy poured into the sweep, Tatsu once again borrowed the momentum of the previous attack to launch his next, this time he kicked off the ground, his body was close to the ground as he flew towards Huvul, aiming for his legs. The older male braced himself, for a full-force attack. Instead, Tatsu spun around and planted both feet on the ground with his knees bent and skidded across the dirt. His arms formed an 'X' and as he stopped he pushed his palms out beside him.

 **[Black Turtle: Hydraulic Pulse]**

A dome of mist burst forth from Tatsu's palms, striking everything within the area with enough force to slice through trees and crumble the largest rocks. However, all the energy in this attack was directed towards Huvul as Tatsu at the last millisecond cupped his right hand and clenched his left into a fist. This effectively transferred the flow of the mist from one end of his body, directly to the center of his right palm.

Huvul jumped back just in time and used his right arm as a sword, slashing through the mist. He raised an eyebrow as he saw Tatsu just standing there, he found out soon enough that the mist he cut wasn't gone and spread throughout the forest, blanketing the entire section they were in from the ground to above the canopy. Tatsu disappeared from Huvul's sight.

"So what is this? A smokescreen? Mist-screen?" Huvul chuckled.

 **[Black Turtle: Snake Barrage]**

From the right, the teen shot forwards, creating a tunnel in the thick mist. Both hands were clenched tightly by his waist. Then as soon as he was close, his hands sharpened into closed-finger palms and rained down strikes on Huvul, aiming for his eyes, throat, temples, solar plexus, and armpits. Once again failing to hit his senior as Huvul blocked every attack with blinding speed using only his forearm.

Little did he know, this is exactly what Tatsu wanted. On the final block, the black-haired teen latched onto his wrist. With his other arm, he pressed onto Huvul's neck, causing the silver-eyed male's chin to be lifted, obstructing his vision.

As Tatsu's body was close enough, he swept his left leg up, kicking Huvul off his balance. The two started to fall backward, with a click of his tongue, the older male replanted one leg on the ground, however, Tatsu was a step ahead. Using the power from his core and he kicked off the ground on his other leg and the two were now back in midair preparing to fall onto the dirt.

Tatsu's leg swung upward in a circular motion and with a slight twist of his body, his knee was coming down towards Huvul's face.

 **[Black Turtle: Shell Constrictor]**

Huvul whipped his head back to avoid the attack, to avoid crashing into the ground he used the power from the knee strike to backflip with Tatsu still latched onto his arm. The teen's eyes widened at this sudden recovery and his body was awkwardly tugged into the flip. He released his hold on the older male's arm so he wouldn't be slammed into the ground.

The second he let go, Huvul stepped forward and struck him with a forearm chop, sending Tatsu flying across the forest. Tatsu twisted his body twice in the air and flipped backward, succeeding in landing on the ground on all fours, his fingers tightly gripped into the earth but still skidded for another five seconds.

Huvul immediately reappeared behind him and waited. With another spin and a supporting palm strike to the ground, Tatsu returned to a standing position.

"Not bad for someone who took a break," Huvul commented.

Tatsu mentally agreed, even with his two-year-long hiatus, his body still performed as if he only took two weeks off. Unbeknownst to him, a smile had formed on his face. With adrenaline pumping through his veins, the tingling that ran down his spine, a euphoric feeling every time he through a kick or a punch. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, there was really no doubt about it. He missed this.

"There he is," Huvul grinned upon seeing the younger's expression, "There he is, there's the Tatsu I know,"

The black-haired teen rushed forward with his fists clenched tightly beside his waist, Huvul also dashed forward and mirrored his movements, except that his left hand was still in his pocket. The dirt and fallen leaves on the forest floor flew up from the two kicking off the ground. A large shockwave pulsed through the area as their right forearms clashed. The trees and rocks closest to them cracked and crumbled apart. From a birdseye view of the mountain, the canopy of leaves rippled as if the mountain was a gigantic pond and an enormous stone was dropped in the center.

For the next half-hour, the sound of combat echoed through the forest. Tatsu relentlessly barraged Huvul with all sorts of attacks that borrowed the momentum from the previous strike and always seemingly in a circular motion. However, the more experienced fighter was always able to find ways to dodge or block, with just his right arm.

 **[Black Turtle: Whirlpool]**

The mist on Tatsu's feet started to grow in size. He kicked off the ground leaving a web of cracks and using a sturdy looking tree as a platform, he launched himself at Huvul. He brought both legs into a loose cannonball position as soon as he was at the highest point of his jump. A split second later he twisted his body and continued to rapidly spin in the air until he was two meters away from Huvul. Concentrated mist spiraled around his legs, looking like a miniature cloud.

Suddenly he lashed out his right leg, the mist instantly slithered and coiled around that leg, resembling a large snake.

 **[Black Turtle: Serpent Rush]**

 **BDOOOOOM**

A geyser, the size of a football field erupted into the sky, easily towering over everything around it. The ground rumbled violently as if an earthquake had just begun, small animals either retreated into their homes or ran away at full speed. The trees, plants trembled while rocks of all sizes splintered.

A golden spark flashed from the bottom of the geyser, and the tower of water started to quiver, before bursting into a tower of steam. Huvul's right hand was sizzling, specks of golden flame danced around his fingers. The steam was now slowly floating and evaporating into the atmosphere.

Tatsu stood there breathing heavily, glanced at his senior, and slumped into a sitting position on the ground. Huvul shook off the remaining flames on his hand and looked down at the teen.

"You pass,"

"Huh?"

Huvul squatted down to his junior's eye level, "You, pass,"

Tatsu cocked his head, "How? You didn't even use your left…"

"You wouldn't know since this is your first examination," the silver-eyed man stood back up, "They're just regular check-ups on the student's annual progress, we only call it the Examination because the Master says it sounds more 'professional'," he extended his hand to help Tatsu up, "The left-hand thing was just for fun,"

Taking his hand, the teen stood up and dusted off his pants. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Huvul nodded, "If you didn't stop training for two years, you may have succeeded, however, it'll take you more than a couple of decades to make me use my legs,"

"Hey! I still do the splits every day," Tatsu exclaimed while doing warm-down stretches by a tree. His body did feel more relaxed after the 'examination'.

The older male folded his arms and glanced at his junior who was finishing off his stretching. Huvul looked around at their surroundings, the section of forest the were in the aftermath of an intense warzone. Glancing back, he saw that Tatsu was taking his time.

"Your grandfather talks about you from time to time," Huvul's words caused the teen to freeze in place, " _The girl_ misses you too, well at least I think she still does, she left last year,"

"Don't think about it too much, it'll be bad for your mental health. here," Huvul dug something out of his suit pocket and tossed it at the teen, "Don't worry, it's peach flavored,"

The orange-eyed teen caught it with one hand while standing up, Tatsu looked at the item he received. A lollipop, with light pink and white wrapping.

"Think of it as a welcome back gift," Huvul said while folding his arms, "or a 'thank you for renewing your membership with us' present,"

"Welcome back? To where?" he asked while staring at the lollipop and scratching the back of his head.

The silver-eyed male walked up to Tatsu and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Home,"

Stepping past him, Huvul coated his hand in golden flames and sliced the air, creating another portal. Before stepping through he turned his head to look back to see the younger male mouthing the word 'home' to himself. With a smirk, Huvul said one more thing before disappearing through the black hole.

"The Martial World,"

Tatsu was left standing in a daze, "J-Just like that?... Aren't I supposed to fight like a giant monster to redeem myself and learn true humility or something?" he looked down at the lollipop in his hand, "What is this the Lollipop of Approval?"

He stared at it for three more seconds before hurriedly unwrapping it and placing it in his mouth. The sweet fragrance and peachy taste made his face beam like a little kid. He took his time gaze at the destruction of nature around him. Truthfully he felt really bad for the damage he caused.

' _Next year, I'll do the exam in the Sahara'_

He trudged through the wrecked forest to find a normal footpath to follow, all the splintered logs and branches on the ground were reminding of something, he just couldn't remember what it wa…

"My Blazer!" Tatsu suddenly yelled causing the lollipop to fly out his mouth, but he caught it and popped it back while turning around, sprinting towards his uniform's last known location.

After arriving at the most destroyed and the wettest section (due to the mist). He thoroughly went through every piece of debris, hoping that it would be lying under something. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a black sleeve sticking out from under a log. Tatsu dashed towards it and pulled the sleeve out revealing...just a long sleeve. The black-haired teen's face dropped and came to the conclusion that the rest must have been destroyed during the fight.

…

…

…

"My wallet's in there!" He yelled in panic.

Soon he conducted another solo search and rescue mission to find his missing item. Hoping that it just flew out at some time and not lying somewhere in shreds as it contained his money, and the key to his apartment.

The entire mountain was turned upside down as Tatsu searched everywhere for his wallet, the area in which they fought looked even more destroyed than before from the teen's crazed hunt. The sun had set when he finally found it, it was buried in the dirt, luckily, still intact. He only found it due to tripping over it by accident.

While checking if his things were still inside, a small rectangular piece of paper fell onto the ground. Tatsu bent down to pick it up. He brushed it across his pants to get the dirt off and glanced at it to check which pocket in the wallet it would go in. His eyes then darted back at the piece of paper as it looked a little familiar.

It was a photo of three people, all from the picture he hid away in his room. The person on the right was a younger Tatsu, around thirteen years of age, wearing his orange hoodie with the hood over his head. On the left was a girl wearing a red hoodie, also around thirteen with black hair that flowed down to her waist, her eyes were golden. In the middle was the old man that stood in the center of the larger photo, he had his arms draped over the two's shoulders.

Tatsu blinked and slipped it into the very back of his wallet, and with that, everything was back in place. He looked around in every direction to see which way was the way out. The forest was now dark and alive with the chirp of cicadas. The only light he had was from the stream of stars above. A blank expression crossed his face. He was lost. He was already lost when the sun was still up, but now that it's night, it became worse.

"Oh, right I could do _that_ ," he said as he started to search for Rias' energy signature.

He gave a shout of joy when he found it, luckily for him, it wasn't that far off and he realized that he must've been somewhere in the outskirts of Kuoh. Tatsu decided that finding a footpath would take up too much time and ended up running through the forest towards the town itself.

* * *

 **?**

Streaks of pale electricity coursed through every inch of the dense black clouds which covered the sky as far as the eye could see. Deafening cracks of thunder rang as they chased after the lightning in a never-ending race.

Under the raging skies was a frenzied ocean, the water as dark as the deepest of caves. Titan-sized rogue waves loomed at each other in an attempt to intimidate the opposing wave, however, they crumbled in the presence of the monstrous waterspouts which dwarfed even the largest of tsunamis. The sound of the water crashing into each other nonstop could rival the booming thunder above. Much like the sky, the ocean stretched far over the horizon with no land in sight.

Turbulent winds soared in every corner, howling as if Geri and Freki, Odin's wolves were locked in mortal combat with Fenrir.

Beneath the clouds, a man-sized black hole appeared Huvul stepped out. The portal dissipated behind him leaving the silver-eyed male floating in midair. He gazed down at the aggressive waters, a bolt of lightning came speeding towards him from behind. Without even looking, he tilted his head to the side, catching the lightning in his hand and simply flicked it back into the dark sky.

Without wasting any more time, Huvul plunged into the freezing blackwater, diving deeper and deeper into the darkness. Soon, from the depths, two glowing serrated mandibles emerged, and from behind, twenty more showed themselves.

The largest pair of mandibles approached Huvul. The group of fangs behind it glowed a brilliant pale yellow. The light grew brighter and larger until it formed a shining bubble around Huvul and the group. The owners of the mandibles were revealed.

They were humanoid and had tough exoskeletal scales, predominantly black with red blood vein-like streams running down the arms, legs, and upper chest. They had a yellow sail running down from the head down to the tail bone, with the sail noticeably taller as it passed through the carapace. Their hands only had four long fingers with a scythe-like claw replacing the fingernail, their feet had three claw-toes, two pointing forward and one pointing back. Both hands and feet were webbed. Along with the deadly mandibles, their mouths showed thick needle canines with the other teeth being serrated and curved back. Interestingly they had small slits above their mouths which served as both the nose and the gills. They had golden sclera with no pupils or irises as eyes. In their webbed hands they held a gray metal shield with spiral designs and a trident-lance. One end was the three prongs of the trident and the other end had the sharp point of a spear.

"State your business," the one with the largest mandibles ordered, pointing his weapon at Huvul as the rest of the group formed a sphere formation around the silver-eyed man. The creature had a slight rumble in its throat, its voice sounded like a cold, high-pitched hiss.

"I'm here to see the King," Huvul's tone was calm, this wasn't his first time in this type of scenario, and it certainly wouldn't be his last.

"Identification?"

"Foxfire,"

The leader lowered his weapon and the others followed his example. "Ahh, _the fox_ , then you must have new information for his majesty," Huvul responded with a short nod.

"Very well, then we won't escort you," the leader said, with a wave of his trident, the aquatic soldiers deactivated the light on their mandibles and continued their patrol.

With them gone, he continued diving down for another fifteen minutes and reached the ocean floor. Surprisingly the bottom of the ocean was well lit, and bustling with different kinds of humanoid and non-humanoid creatures that resembled animals from both the pelagic and benthic zones. In short, a giant kingdom lay at the bottom of the ocean.

At the center of the city, there was a large crimson dome made of red quartz. The King's Palace. As Huvul approached, several guards that resembled orcas approached him and asked him the same questions as the other group from above. Huvul answered them with the same answers he gave before. The guards nodded and parted to the side, allowing the silver-eyed male to enter the palace. The inside of the palace was drained of all water.

Weaving his way through all the corridors and chambers, he soon found himself in the king's study on the very top floor. The room was the same as any other royal study room aside from the aquatic concept. Huvul approached a long sandstone desk with his hands behind his back. Sitting on an imposing seat made of steel from lances and tridents, was the king. However, only his elbows and lower forearms showed as they were placed on the table in the shape of an 'A'. The king was wearing a long-sleeve dark robe so his skin color wasn't visible, if he had skin that is. The rest of his body was hidden in the shadows.

Huvul moved his right hand across, touching his shoulder, and bowed. "It is good to see that you are in good health, your majesty,"

"Greetings, Fox," the king replied, his voice was deep and rumbled, but it still had a clear and regal tone to it.

Huvul straightened up and snapped his fingers. A small black flame sparked in the middle of his palm and a brown, paper cover folder appeared in his hand.

"This contains updated data on _the candidates_ ," he said placing the folder in front of the king. The king put a hand on the folder and slid it towards himself.

"Anything new this time?" the king asked, opening the folder and looking at the first page.

"Yes, a fifth candidate has appeared,"

This got the king's attention, "Fifth?"

"Yes your majesty, I had my eye on him for quite some time and only today was I certain that he would be the best choice to take the position of The Fifth Candidate,"

The king leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands, his head, however, like before only his forearms showed. "Go on,"

Huvul nodded and informed the king, "The Fifth Candidate, much like all the other candidate has an above-average proficiency in martial arts, today he flawlessly demonstrated the Black Turtle of the Four Guardians Forms despite taking a two-year hiatus from combat, although I know for a fact that he does have other styles in reserve,"

"How so?"

"We share the same master,"

The king nodded, not that anyone could see it, "Continue,"

"The Fifth Candidate shares a near uncanny resemblance and potentially has _the eyes_ ,"

Hearing this, the king shot up from his seat and slammed his palms onto the table, " _A_ re you certain?"

Huvul gave him a firm nod, "There is a picture of him in the file I gave you,"

The king sat back down and pondered for a moment before speaking up. "Anything else?"

"The FIfth Candidate has allied himself with the Devils and the newest possessor of the Boosted Gear, though this may only be because of...school"

"Very well then," The king opened the folder and sorted through the pages, "What about the other candidates, any significant changes?"

The silver-eyed male shook his head, "Candidate One is still under the watch of Ophis, Candidate Two and Three are still missing, and Candidate Four died last year,"

The king reached the fifth page and looked at Huvul, "You should get going and report to the other kings about this,"

Huvul bowed once again, "I'll submit a more detailed report on The Fifth Candidate as soon as I receive more information," and with that, he created another portal and went through.

The king stood from his seat and walked over to a balcony on the side that overlooked his kingdom, in his hand was the page on candidate five.

"You didn't disappoint me this time Huvul," he hissed as he scanned the contents of the page, "Well done,"

The king's reptilian golden eyes and black slit irises gleamed in the dark as his gaze traveled two the image of the candidate in the top right corner of the paper.

The Fifth Candidate is Tatsu.

* * *

 **Episode 3: Finish**

 **Now that the first three "Prologue/Introduction" chapters are finished, the real story can begin.**

 **First things first, Yes, this will be** _ **primarily martial arts focused**_ **with less focus on magic.**

 **Second thing, the Chi and Senjutsu being essentially the same thing but not the same will be explained in the future. Why I split them into two separate things is due to Tatsu's race/species, which will also be revealed...eventually.**

 **Third, all the newly introduced characters are tied into Tatsu's past and to an extent his past life so they are integral, although they won't appear for a while after this chapter.**

 **Fourth, there will be an entirely new Pantheon of Gods that will appear in this story, the Jade Pantheon which was mentioned briefly in the last chapter. The Jade Pantheon is an** _ **actual**_ **pantheon in East Asian myths and legends. Speaking of Gods, several of them were significantly nerfed in canon DXD, but I'm gonna give them back most of their strength which means YES, There will be large scale terrain destroying battles.**

 **Fifth, the story is going to follow the main story for another few chapters before Tatsu's...problems (arcs?) will come rushing in.**

 **Anyway, That's All.**

 **Thank You For Reading**

 **Next Episode:** **...Haven't thought of a name.**


End file.
